East Coast Marine Life Survey - AMAPPS III

Atlantic Right Whale | photo credit NOAA

The Atlantic Marine Assessment Program for Protected Species (AMAPPS) is a federal multi-agency program designed to study how many marine mammals, sea turtles, and seabirds are in U.S. waters, where they are located at different times of the year, and how they may be changing over time.

AMAPPS, allows researchers to put all the information about abundance, distribution, ecology and behavior of protected species - from whales, dolphins, and seals to marine turtles and seabirds - into an ecosystem context so resource managers can use it for conservation measures and decision-making.

The primary funders of AMAPPS are NOAA, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the U.S. Navy. One of the goals of the program is to develop models and related tools to provide distribution patterns and density estimates by season and location that includes habitat characteristics of marine mammals, turtles and seabirds along the U.S. East Coast.

The next five-year program, AMAPPS III, runs from 2019 to 2023. During AMAPPS III, in addition to continuing the above data collection, plankton (in particular larval tuna) samples will be investigated.

As part of AMAPPS activities in 2019, NOAA Fisheries scientists for the Northeast and Southeast Fisheries Science Centers conducted spring aerial surveys covering waters from Florida to Maine from the coastline to more than 200 miles offshore during April 1 to June 30 using NOAA Twin Otter aircraft.

The Northeast Fisheries Science Center also collects oceanographic and environmental data on its own shipboard survey cruises throughout the year, such as the Ecosystem Monitoring survey, which also hosts AMAPPS marine mammal and seabird observers.

One product of the program to date has been the Marine Mammal Model Viewer, which displays the data on a map of the East Coast showing the predicted abundance and distribution of a specific marine species in different seasons of the year, based on the data scientists collected during this project. Sightings of the 17 most common whale, dolphin and porpoise species are included, with more species to be added.

Wind-energy lease areas are marked on the maps, which can be viewed on computers as well as on mobile devices. A user can draw a box around an area of interest, investigate in more detail the density patterns within that box, then download the density data for use in other analyses.

The AMAPPS sightings data have also been used in other density models. For example, they have been used in mammal, turtle, and seabird maps available on the Northeast Ocean Data Portal.

Following the successful AMAPPS project in the western North Atlantic Ocean, similar projects have been initiated in the Gulf of Mexico (GoMMAPPS) and the Pacific Ocean (PacMAPPS).

Save the Albatross Campaign Receives Funding

Save the Albatross, a global campaign of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (www.savethealbatross.net) has been selected for Friend of the Sea (FOS) funding, as it is achieving tangible results in the conservation of these endangered sea birds.

Albatrosses are true ocean-going birds and include the world’s largest flying bird, the Wandering albatross. They face many threats, including incidental capture in longline and trawl fisheries. Unless bycatch reduction measures are implemented, 17 of the world’s 22 albatross species could be at risk. Nine species are either endangered or critically endangered, according to the IUCN Redlist (www.redlist.org).

The RSPB and BirdLife International have developed the Albatross Task Force, a global team that works with fishermen to save the albatross from extinction. The project educates fishermen and the industry stakeholders in seven seabird bycatch hotspots worldwide, including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Namibia, South Africa, Uruguay to implement appropriate bycatch reduction measures on board vessels.

An estimated 100.000 albatrosses are killed in fisheries every year. Considering mature albatross of some species lay one egg every two years, this mortality rate is not sustainable.

To learn more about Albatross Task Force, a project of BirdLife International, watch their video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p88yOWgEeiM&feature=player_embedded

2010 World Seabird Conference

The 1st World Seabird Conference International Steering Committee, led by the Pacific Seabird Group and 25 other professional seabird and research organizations from around the world, is leading the development of this important, inaugural conference focused on seabirds.

Through a strong conference program, the goal of this Conference is to put seabird management and conservation into a worldwide perspective. By bringing 800 - 900 participants from over 40 countries together, it will comprehensively address the global issues and data needs for these species, most of which inhabit multiple countries and waters within their own ranges.

This conference will take place September 7-11, 2010 at the Victoria Conference Centre in beautiful Victoria, BC, Canada.

For more information on the conference and to register go to:
www.worldseabirdconference.com/main.cfm?cid=1813&nid=12669

source: Fishlink Sublegals