Northern Right Whale Monitoring Program

By Marine Resources Council

The Marine Resources Council is a partner in the development and training of an extensive citizen volunteer network to monitor the coast of east Florida and report whale sightings. Largely supported by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Disney Wildlife Conservation Fund, the volunteer network is comprised of over 800 individuals from Fernandina Beach to Boca Raton, Florida with ongoing expansion into Georgia and South Carolina. It includes residents of oceanfront condominiums and homes, lifeguards, shoreline businesses, recreational and commercial boating interests, harbor pilots, and winter residents. Each of these trained volunteers is dedicated to enhancing the public’s awareness of the endangered North Atlantic right whale and providing critical field observations that decrease the potential for marine vessel impacts to whales.

The project has a number of broad objectives:

• Document, using a trained volunteer sighting network, the occurrence and location of right whales in Florida coastal waters from November to April
• Track the movement of right whales during the winter calving season.
• Alert ships at sea, ships in port shipping channels, beach goers, and other shoreline users to the presence of right whales.
• Train volunteers to recognize, identify and report the occurrence, numbers, activity and migrating path of right whales along Florida’s east coast.
• Increase and enhance public awareness and knowledge about the endangered North Atlantic right whale population through press coverage, educational programs, seminars, and public workshops.
• Work with the Southeast Implementation Team for Recovery of the North Atlantic Right Whale (i.e., Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Georgia Environmental Policy Institute, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, National Marine Fisheries Service, Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary, New England Aquarium, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Navy, area port authorities, etc.) to organize an early warning system to inform all mariners of the presence and location of whales.

How Can You Get Involved?

Attend a training class! Every winter the Marine Resources Council conducts training seminars available free to the public. Each class is approximately an hour long and you will be taught what a right whale looks like, how to report a sighting, and why it is so critical that shoreline monitoring be done. The seminars are highly recommended for anyone unfamiliar with right whales. A 20-minute video and sometimes a 20-minute slide presentation is given at each seminar. Viewing one or both of these will help you understand what right whales look like.

Report sightings! Nothing is required of you but a little education and effort. We do not require you to go whale watching on specific days or for specific time periods. The amount of effort you put into it is strictly up to you. Just report the sightings as they happen so the Navy receives the most up-to-date information. Official right whale season in Florida is December 1 through March 31 each year and they can often be seen within a few hundred yards of the shore.

Become a volunteer! By becoming a volunteer you will be kept informed of local right whale sightings through our phone tree. You will also receive our program newsletter at the beginning and ending of each season. All we ask is that you update us with your current contact information each season and remain an active whale watcher!

For more information, please contact the Marine Resources Council at (321) 725-7775, 3275 Dixie Hwy. NE, Palm Bay, FL 32905; e-mail: council@mrcirl.org, Web site: www.mrcirl.org.