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Cape Cod Bay (Massachusetts) is the only known winter and early spring feeding area for concentrations of the endangered North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) population. During January-May, 1998-2002, 167 aerial surveys were conducted (66,466 km of total survey effort), providing a complete representation of the spatiotemporal distribution of right whales in the bay during winter and spring. A total of 1553 right whales were sighted; some of these sightings were multiple sightings of the same individuals. Right whale distribution and relative abundance patterns were quantified as sightings per unit of effort (SPUE) and partitioned into 103 23-km2 cells and 12 2-week periods. Significant interannual variations in mean SPUE and timing of SPUE maxima were likely due to physically forced changes in available food resources. The area of greatest SPUE expanded and contracted during the season but its center remained in the eastern bay. Most cells with SPUE>0 were inside the federal critical habitat (CH) and this finding gave evidence of the need for management measures within CH boundaries to reduce anthropogenic mortality from vessel strikes and entanglement. There was significant within-season SPUE variability: low in December-January, increasing to a maximum in late February-early April, and declining to zero in May; and these results provide support for management measures from 1 January-15 May. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The North Atlantic right whale, a seriously endangered species, is found in Cape Cod Bay (Massachusetts, USA) during the winter and early spring. During their residency in these waters, these whales are frequently observed feeding. This study evaluated spatial and temporal changes in the chemical composition (carbon weight and C/N ratio) of the food resource targeted by the right whales in Cape Cod Bay. The three taxa measured ( Centropages typicus, Pseudocalanus spp., and Calanus finmarchicus) had highly variable chemical compositions resulting from the different life strategies and from fluctuations in their surrounding environment. The impact of seasonal variability in the energy densities of the food resource of right whales was calculated and compared to the energetic requirements of these whales. Calculations indicated that differences in the nutritional content of the zooplankton prey in Cape Cod Bay could have a considerable effect on the nutrition available to the right whales. Therefore, it is likely that using more precise estimates of the energetic densities of the prey of right whales would lead to a re-evaluation of the adequacy of the food resource available to these whales in the North Atlantic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the efforts of Christopher Clark of the Bioacoustics Research Program at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and his colleagues to analyze the underwater sounds that right whales use to communicate and help prevent collisions between the whales and commercial ships. It describes how the pop-up buoys developed by the researchers can monitor the whale's movements in Massachusetts Bay's Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary and alert ships in Boston Harbor about their presence.

The North Atlantic right whale is a critically endangered species. Five major habitat areas have been defined based on the presence of groups of right whales during different seasons of the year. Autonomous seafloor acoustic recorders, ‘‘pop-ups,’’ have been used over the past five years to identify the presence/absence of right whales in Cape Cod Bay, Massachusetts by detection of right whale contact calls. These recordings have shown the effectiveness of using acoustics to monitor right whale behavior. In 2004, multi-unit arrays of pop-ups were deployed in three critical habitat areas; Cape Cod Bay (January–April), Great South Channel (May), and the Bay of Fundy (August). The presence/absence of right whale calls within range of the array, estimates of the minimum number of individuals calling, the types of calls recorded, and the diurnal patterns of sound production were measured to compare the acoustic repertoire use of right whales in these three habitats. These data were compared to visual survey data in the Bay of Fundy. These results can be used to compare diurnal and nocturnal behavioral patterns of the whales and provide information on behavioral differences between these three critical habitat areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]