"Whales"

Division into distinct populations paves the way for tailored conservation efforts

Today, NOAA Fisheries awarded nearly $3 million in grants to support the conservation and recovery of protected marine species through stranding response and marine mammal rescue and rehabilitation. Through the John H. Prescott Marine Mammal Rescu

This technical guidance was developed to help predict how ocean noise affects marine mammal hearing.

Deploying autonomous sailing vessels with customized acoustic technologies to study whales, fish and seals in remote parts of the ocean.

Are humpback whales still endangered, or have their populations recovered enough since whaling ended that they can now be taken off the Endangered Species List? NOAA Fisheries scientists have spent several years researching this question, and their ans

New science on how noise levels affects marine mammal hearing.

This annual summary provides entanglement information and related updates that are particularly useful to those engaged in efforts to understand and address the issue on the U.S. West Coast from the fishery management perspective.

Using new information, NOAA Fisheries expands critical habitat for endangered North Atlantic right whales to cover its northeast feeding areas in the Gulf of Maine/Georges Bank region and southeast calving grounds from North Carolina to Florida.

This report describes field activities of the Aerial Surveys of Arctic Marine Mammals (ASAMM) project conducted during summer and fall (1 July–31 October) 2015 and data analyses used to summarize field activities. Surveys were based in Barrow, Alaska, and Deadhorse, Alaska, and targeted the northeastern and southcentral Chukchi and western Beaufort seas, between 67°N and 72°N latitude and 140°W and 169°W longitude. Sea ice cover in the study area in 2015 was generally light compared with historical (pre-2007) sea ice cover. In early July, sea ice in the eastern Chukchi Sea remained north of 71.5°N. By late July, sea ice remained in the Hanna Shoal area, but was otherwise absent from the Chukchi Sea study area. Sea ice persisted in most of the western Beaufort Sea through August. From early September through mid-October, sea ice was largely absent from the ASAMM study area although some grounded ice remained nearshore between Camden Bay and Deadhorse. By late October, new ice was forming in the northern blocks and in shallow nearshore areas in the western Beaufort Sea study area. The northeastern Chukchi Sea study area remained almost completely ice free through late October, with sea ice present only in shallow nearshore areas.

NOAA Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Fisheries and U.S. Commissioner to the International Whaling Commission releases statement regarding Japan.