2022 Eastern Bering Sea Beluga Whale Aerial Abundance Survey
May 10, 2022
The overall research objective is to obtain an abundance estimate for the population of the Eastern Bering Sea stock of beluga whales.
Who is conducting the survey?
Scientists from the Alaska Fisheries Science Center’s Marine Mammal Laboratory and University of Washington, Cooperative Institute for Climate, Ocean, & Ecosystem Studies will be conducting the surveys. The Alaska Beluga Whale Committee and NOAA’s Alaska Regional Office are collaborators on the project.
What is the research objective?
The overall research objective is to obtain an abundance estimate for the population of the Eastern Bering Sea stock of beluga whales. This is achieved by recording beluga whales sighted during transects flown over the whales' range. The number of whales detected during the survey is then corrected for whales that may have been missed because they were below the surface, or because factors such as weather or distance to the whales made them difficult to detect.