Recommended Shipping Lanes to Protect Whales Map & GIS Data

North Atlantic right whales are protected under the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972. The purpose of the recommended shipping lanes is to reduce the likelihood of deaths and serious injuries to these endangered whales that result from collisions with ships.

These maps and corresponding Geographic Information Systems (GIS) shapefile data represent the recommended lanes for whale in the NOAA Fisheries Southeast Region. Esri's ArcGIS software or Google Earth can be used to open GIS shapefiles. Google Earth can also be used to open zipped KML (KMZ) files to view the recommended lanes. Click here to download Google Earth. Metadata (information about the GIS shapefile data) is available in XML or an easy-to-read HTML format.

For more information or questions about this data please contact the GIS Coordinator at nmfs.ser.gis.coordinator@noaa.gov.