Maia McGuire, Florida Sea Grant Associate Director for Extension and Education
As some readers know, I was the UF/IFAS Extension Sea Grant agent for Flagler County from 2001-2020. Last year, I moved into a statewide role as Florida Sea Grant’s Associate Director for Extension and Education. We are hoping to fill the Flagler County position sometime this spring. Until we do that, I will submit the occasional marine-related story to the News-Tribune.
This week I would like to share some information about North Atlantic right whales (NARWs). Some of you may be aware that the NARW is considered critically endangered, with a population that is estimated to comprise about 400 individuals. These large (50 foot long) baleen whales have been the focus of much attention, especially over the past 20 years or so, as researchers have tried to learn more about the species in order to better protect it.
Seals might soon show up on the Jersey Shore. Know what to do if you see one.
Updated Feb 03, 2021;
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Bob Schoelkopf has had his eyes trained on a 24-hour nature camera on Seal Island, Maine for the last few months.
He has been spying on a “population boom” of gray seal pups and watching their mothers leaving them behind as they descend back into the sea to feed. It will be the pups’ chance next to waddle into the surf and set off for their first real meal.
Up to 500 of the seals may find food near 1,800 miles of coastline and back bays in New Jersey over the next few months, as they have for a millennia or more. Ocean temperatures in the mid-30s this week create an ideal environment.
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The Ninth Circuit vacated U.S. Department of the Interior approvals for a proposed offshore oil drilling and production facility in Alaska after finding its EIS improperly failed to consider impacts associated with foreign oil consumption and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Biological Opinion relied on overly vague mitigation measures and improperly failed to quantify the project’s nonlethal take of polar bears.
Center for Biological Diversity v. Bernhardt, 982 F.3d 723 (9th Cir. 2020).
Conservation groups challenged the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) approval of the “Liberty Project,” which proposes to produce crude oil from Foggy Island Bay off the northern coast of Alaska, for failure to comply with procedural requirements of NEPA, the ESA, and the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA). Project proponents estimated that the Project would produce approximately 120 million barrels of crude oil
Lobstermen react to proposed NOAA rule
ELLSWORTH At what cost does saving the North Atlantic right whale come?
A Jan. 20 public meeting on the latest proposal to reduce the risk of whale entanglements in fishing lines focused on northern and eastern Maine lobster fishing. The virtual meeting continued discussions between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and lobstermen that began in 2019. The Maine Department of Marine Resources submitted its own risk-reduction proposal in January 2020 that NOAA said did not fully meet its goals.
At this latest meeting, local lobstermen echoed similar concerns they aired when discussions started two years ago: NOAA is relying on incomplete and outdated data, and fishermen are not seeing right whales in Maine waters. NOAA scientists agree that more data would be useful.
Unique whale species recently discovered in Gulf already nearing extinction
1 month 3 weeks 4 days ago
Tuesday, January 26 2021
Jan 26, 2021
January 26, 2021 7:06 AM
January 26, 2021
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Source: The Advocate
Aerial shot of Rice s Whale in the Gulf of Mexico.
Photo: NOAA/The Advocate
The Gulf of Mexico s waters are teeming with life, some of it yet to be fully understood or even discovered by scientists.
Biologists couldn t help but note the never-ending nature of such scientific discoveries as they were recently surprised to learn new information about a unique species of whale found in the Gulf.
According to The Advocate, a new study headed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration revealed that what experts once believed were Gulf-residing Bryde s whales are actually a completely different species of whale.