WhaleWatch
WhaleWatch is a NASA-funded project coordinated by NOAA Fisheries' West Coast Region that provides near real-time information on where whales occur and where they may be most at risk from threats.
WhaleWatch is a NASA-funded project coordinated by NOAA Fisheries' West Coast Region to help reduce human impacts on whales by providing near real-time information on where the whales occur and hence where whales may be most at risk from threats, such as ship strikes, entanglements, and loud underwater sounds. These model estimates were developed from habitat-based models of whale occurrence that combine satellite tracking of whales with information on the environment and can be used by ship captains to identify whale hot spots to avoid.
WhaleWatch is an automated tool that uses advanced technologies to predict where blue whales are likely to be in near real-time. Whales were tagged with Argos satellite transmitters and tracked as they moved from the eastern central Pacific breeding grounds to their feeding grounds off the U.S. West Coast. The whale locations were combined with environmental data collected via satellites, including water temperature, chlorophyll concentrations, and other ocean features like wind speed. The relationship between whales and these environmental data was then used to predict the chance of blue whale occurrence and likely densities across the modeled areas. This is calculated based on current ocean conditions to provide the near real-time maps. In other words, if there were areas where blue whales occurred in the past that correlated with certain levels of the environmental factors (e.g. chlorophyll concentrations), then the model would predict a higher likelihood of blue whale presence in an area that showed those same levels.
Webinar
Monthly Model Estimates
This month’s model estimates for Blue Whales (Balaenoptera musculus) off the U.S. West Coast:
Lower, Average, and Upper estimates represent the range of relative likelihood of blue whale presence from 0 (low) to 100 (high). Average density (# whales per 25km x 25km grid cell) is included on the far right.
Model developed by Hazen et al. (2016)
Values are per 25 x 25 km (approximately 13 x 13 nmi). Red colors represent higher occurrence and blue colors represent lower occurrence. These predictions are only estimates based on the models developed from historical data and do not represent actual recorded sightings or current densities. In this version, the model predictions are based on monthly products of the environmental data. An update is underway to automate daily predictions at 10km scale using real-time modeled ocean conditions, which would improve the responsiveness of our tool (see Abrahms et al. 2019).
Please see the WhaleWatch Prediction Archive for images of past predictions.
This research has been conducted by a multi-institutional team of academic groups and governmental organizations led by Helen Bailey (University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science) and in collaboration with the NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region.
The satellite telemetry data on whales were collected by Bruce Mate and colleagues (Oregon State University), geo-spatial distribution by Ladd Irvine (OSU), habitat modeling by Daniel Palacios (OSU), Elliott Hazen, Steven Bograd, Karin Forney (NOAA Fisheries Southwest Fisheries Science Center), and the web tool created by Evan Howell and Aimee Hoover (NOAA Fisheries Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center).
Funding for this project was provided under the interagency NASA, US Geological Survey, National Park Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Smithsonian Institution Climate and Biological Response program, Grant Number NNX11AP71G. Funding for whale tagging was provided by the Office of Naval Research, the Marine Mammal Institute at OSU, and the Sloan, Packard and Moore Foundations to the Tagging of Pacific Predators Program.
For more information on WhaleWatch please contact Helen Bailey at hbailey@umces.edu.
Team Members
Principal Investigator
Helen Bailey
Project co-ordinator
Movement and habitat modeling
University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES)
E-mail: hbailey@umces.edu
Co-Investigators
Bruce Mate
Satellite telemetry and cetacean advisor
Oregon State University
E-mail: bruce.mate@oregonstate.edu
Ladd Irvine
Satellite telemetry and analysis
Oregon State University
E-mail: ladd.irvine@oregonstate.edu
Daniel Palacios
Habitat modeling
Oregon State University
E-mail: daniel.palacios@oregonstate.edu
Steven Bograd
Oceanography advisor
NOAA Fisheries Southwest Fisheries Science Center (SWFSC)
E-mail: steven.bograd@noaa.gov
Elliott Hazen
Habitat modeling
NOAA Fisheries SWFSC
E-mail: elliott.hazen@noaa.gov
Karin Forney
Habitat modeling advisor
NOAA Fisheries SWFSC
E-mail: karin.forney@noaa.gov
Lynn Dewitt
Website development
NOAA Fisheries SWFSC
E-mail: lynn.dewitt@noaa.gov
Evan Howell
Decision support tool developer
NOAA Fisheries Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC)
E-mail: evan.howell@noaa.gov
Aimee Hoover
Decision support tool coding
NOAA Fisheries PIFSC
Current address: UMCES
E-mail: ahoover@umces.edu
Partner
Monica DeAngelis
Marine Mammal Biologist
NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region
