North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium Annual Meeting

Posted on November 4, 2024

The Marine Species Monitoring Program was recently represented at the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium (NARWC) Annual Meeting in Providence, RI by the Atlantic program managers and research team members from HDR. With only about 370 individuals remaining, this population is critically endangered. The NARWC was started in 1986 as a collaborative data sharing group and has grown to include more than 200 individuals from various research and conservation organizations, shipping and fishing industries, technical experts, U.S. and Canadian government agencies, and state and provincial authorities, all of whom are dedicated to the conservation and recovery of the North Atlantic right whale. The annual meeting serves as a venue for all stakeholders and interested citizens to come together to share new research, and discuss the status, threats, and conservation of this species.

The Marine Species Monitoring Program has been increasing investments for NARW monitoring, conservation, and protection in recent years with a focus on the historically under-studied but very important mid-Atlantic region.  This year we contributed a video presentation about a late spring aggregation in the Mid-Atlantic that generated significant discussion and prompted calls for additional monitoring and protections is this region. We also had the opportunity to interact with a variety of stakeholders about our work and make new connections with several researches interested in collaboration. We're excited for the southbound migration to begin so we can continue contributing to NARW conservation and protection.