In December 2018, we were excited to partner with NOAA Fisheries, Georgia Department of Natural Resources and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to start an exciting field project focused on North Atlantic right whales off the coast of central Florida.
The North Atlantic right whale is a critically endangered whale population only found in the Western North Atlantic Ocean. Their population numbers around 400 individuals and each animal is identified and tracked in a catalogue maintained by the New England Aquarium in Boston, Massachusetts.
The majority of the population are found on their feeding grounds off New England and Eastern Canada in the Summer and Fall and a portion of the population head to the Southeast U.S. to give birth to their calves in the relatively calm and sheltered coastal waters between southern Georgia and central Florida.
Typically the southern portion of the right whales calving grounds is Port Canaveral and North, but depending on water temperatures they may head farther south to Melbourne Beach or beyond. In fact some years, mothers and calves have been observed off Miami and even on rare occasion in the Gulf of Mexico.
Our project focused on acquiring high resolution digital video for use by NOAA Fisheries and other research and academic institutions to raise awareness on the plight of the right whale. Their main cause of death is human related by either collision with vessels or entanglement in fishing gear.
As part of the project, we were also looking to classify behaviors and observe any natural behaviors between mother and calf, as well as other species like Bottlenose dolphins.
We had a great season and acquired a tremendous amount of video footage.