North Atlantic Ocean habitats important to the conservation of North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) Conservation of North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis)

"We provide a spatial and temporal description of the habitats important to the conservation of North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) in US waters of the Northwest Atlantic Ocean. This analysis is based on the premise that the biological and physical feature of habitat essential to the conservation of right whales in this region (i.e., the primary constituent element [PCE] which a species needs to survive and reproduce) is the presence of dense patches of calanoid copepods (notably Calanus finmarchicus). Despite the general importance of copepods to the marine food web of the region, only limited data are available to map the distribution of dense copepod patches that constitute the PCE for foraging right whales. Hence, we used right whale foraging areas as a proxy for the spatial locations of these patches. Based on systematic sighting surveys for right whales conducted from 1970 through 2005, we identified concentrations of foraging right whales in US Atlantic waters north of 40° N latitude. These data were then used to define Dynamic Area Management (DAM) zones, which indicated that most of the area north of the Great South Channel on Georges Bank was used at least seasonally for foraging. This region included seasonal foraging subareas generally identified as Cape Cod Bay, Great South Channel, Northern Edge of Georges Bank, Western Gulf of Maine, Wilkinson Basin, and Jordan Basin. Wilkinson and Jordan Basins are also considered essential to the conservation of right whales because these two basins are source areas for the dense copepod concentrations upon which right whales prey in US Northwest Atlantic waters"--Publication's home page. by Richard M. Pace III and Richard L Merrick. "April 2008." Includes bibliographical references.