Science & Data

This study marks the first acoustic comparison between wild belugas and narwhals from the same location and provides strong support for the use of echolocation in PAM efforts to differentiate belugas and narwhals acoustically.

Distribution and Relative Abundance of Marine Mammals in the Eastern Chukchi Sea, Eastern and Western Beaufort Sea, and Amundsen Gulf, 2019 Annual Report

Tracks the implementation of recovery actions from Endangered Species Act (ESA) recovery plans.

This paper presents results from the youngest portion of this population, deceased fetuses and calves-of-the-year, to provide insights into breeding and calving seasonality for this endangered population.

Study to determine the reproductive status of female Cook Inlet beluga whales.

Each year we conduct aerial surveys of the northern and western coasts of Alaska, in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas.

Each year we conduct aerial surveys of the northern and western coasts of Alaska, in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas.

Daniel J. Vos, Kim E. W. Shelden, Nancy A. Friday, and Barbara A. Mahoney researched and combined beluga age estimates, from the teeth of hunted and stranded belugas during the period 1992–2001, with additional teeth collected up to June 2015.

This report describes field activities of the Aerial Surveys of Arctic Marine Mammals (ASAMM) project conducted during summer and fall (1 July–29 October) 2018, and data and analyses used to summarize field activities. Surveys were based in Utqiaġvik (formerly Barrow), Alaska, and Deadhorse, Alaska, and targeted the northeastern and southcentral Chukchi and western Beaufort seas, between 67°N and 73°N latitude, 140°W and 169°W longitude.

This Arctic survey of marine mammals in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas has been conducted every year off the northern and western coasts of Alaska since 1979. A long-term dataset like this is extraordinary because it is both unusual and important. Exact survey dates and boundaries have varied over time, but the study goals, general survey area, and survey methods have stayed remarkably similar. ASAMM is co-managed and conducted by the NOAA Fisheries Alaska Fisheries Science Center, and funded and co-managed by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.