Abstract
Offshore wind energy development is growing quickly around the world. In southern New England, USA, one of the largest commercial offshore wind energy farms in the USA will be established in the waters off Massachusetts and Rhode Island, an area used by the Critically Endangered North Atlantic right whaleEubalaena glacialis. Prior to 2011, little was known about the use of this area by right whales. We examined aerial survey data collected between 2011-2015 and 2017-2019 to quantify right whale distribution, residency, demography, and movements in the region. Right whale occurrence increased during the study period. Since 2017, whales have been sighted in the area nearly every month, with peak sighting rates between late winter and spring. Model outputs suggest that 23% of the species’ population is present from December through May, and the mean residence time has tripled to an average of 13 d during these months. Age and sex ratios of the individuals present in the area are similar to those of the species as a whole, with adult males the most common demographic group. Movement models showed that southern New England is an important destination for right whales, including conceptive and reproductive females, and qualitative observations included animals feeding and socializing. Implementing mitigation procedures in coordination with these findings will be crucial in lessening the potential impacts on right whales from construction noise, increased vessel traffic, and habitat disruption in this region.
Highlights
The management and conservation of migratory species is challenging, in dynamic marine environments
The gap in resighting times is likely more of a reflection of survey effort than of the whales’ movements among locations. This 8 yr analysis of sightings revealed that right whales have become more common in southern New England (SNE) waters, with sightings documented in nearly every month of the year
SNE is an important habitat used by all demographic groups because the age and sex ratios are similar to those in the overall species population, and the estimated residency duration for females and males tripled during the study period
Summary
The management and conservation of migratory species is challenging, in dynamic marine environments. The North Atlantic right whale Eubalaena glacialis (hereafter referred to as the right whale) is a Critically Endangered migratory species (Cooke 2020). It is one of the most endangered cetaceans worldwide, with an estimated abundance of 356 individuals (Pettis et al 2021). The population has been declining since 2010 (Pace et al 2017, Pettis et al 2020) due to mortality from entanglements in fixed fishing gear and vessel strikes (Corkeron et al 2018, Sharp et al 2019, Pace et al 2021) and a 40% decrease in calving (Kraus et al 2016a), including no births in 2018 (Pettis et al 2020). This decrease in reproduction may be attributable to chronic stress from anthropogenic injury (van der Hoop et al 2017) and climate-driven changes in food resources (MeyerGutbrod et al 2018, Record et al 2019)
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