SATELLITE-MONITORED MOVEMENTS OF THE NORTHERN RIGHT WHALE

The northern right whale, Eubalaena glacialis, remains the most critic ally endangered of the large cetaceans despite international protectio n since 1936. We used satellite-monitored radiotags to identify the la te-summer and fall habitat use patterns of right whales in the western North Atlantic. We tagged 9 whales in the Bay of Fundy (BOF) and succ essfully tracked them for a total of 13,910 km ((x) over bar = 1,546 k m) in 195 whale-tracking days (range 7-42 days each, (x) over bar = 21 .7 days). Individuals tracked for more than 12 consecutive days (N = 6 whales) left the BOF at least once and had higher average speeds ((x) over bar = 3.5 km/hr) than those that stayed within the bay ((x) over bar = 1.1 km/hr). Three of the tagged whales not only left the BOF, b ut traveled more than 2,000 km each before returning to the general ta gging area. One adult female with a calf went to New Jersey and back t o the BOF (3,761 km) in 42 days. Most locations were along bank edges, in basins or along the continental shelf. Eighty percent of locations were in water <182 m (100 fathoms [F]) deep. All of the tagged whales were located in or near shipping lanes. Right whale distribution coin cided with areas intensively used by humans for fishing, shipping, and recreation. Individuals moved rapidly among areas previously identifi ed as right whale habitat. Whale locations plotted on sea surface temp erature (satellite infrared) images suggest that one whale spent time at the edge of a warm core ring and others spent extended periods in u pwellings. Observations of whales surfacing with mud on their heads su ggest that these whales fed near the BOF seafloor. Satellite telemetry is a useful means of tracking cetacean species that are difficult to view, move long distances, and might be too expensive to monitor by ot her means.