MMS ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES PROGRAM: ONGOING STUDIES
MMS OCS Region: Alaska
Title: Bowhead Whale Feeding in the Eastern Alaskan Beaufort Sea:  Update of Scientific and Traditional Information (AK-97-05)
Total Cost: $2,401,000 Period of Performance: FY 1997-2002
Conducting Organization: LGL Limited Environmental Research Associates
MMS Contact:

Chief, Alaska Environmental Studies Section
Description:
Background
The extent to which the bowhead whale population utilizes OCS areas in the eastern Alaskan Beaufort Sea for feeding, as well as this area’s importance to individual whales, is being studied to yield more definitive quantitative estimates. The study updates and improves on a major scientific report, which estimated that the eastern Alaskan Beaufort Sea is not an important feeding habitat for bowhead whales.
Objectives
The objectives of this study are to:
  1. Quantify the importance of the eastern Alaskan Beaufort Sea as a feeding area for bowhead whales.
  2. Compare with appropriate literature and other available sources, including traditional-knowledge sources, for previous years.
  3. Update available information on disturbance to feeding bowhead whales.
  4. Characterize the ambient acoustic environment in the eastern Alaskan Beaufort Sea and predict sound levels of oil-and-gas-industry activity received by potentially feeding whales.
Methods
Phase 1/Year 1 - Planning: The study contractor/cooperators conducted a workshop and series of subsequent project meetings that designed, refined, and recommended hypotheses for evaluating/ estimating the importance of the eastern Alaskan Beaufort Sea as a feeding area for bowhead whales. Workshop and meeting attendees included representatives of the North Slope Borough (NSB), Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission (AEWC), Kaktovik Whaling Captains Association, MMS, National Marine Fisheries Service and an Inupiaq-language translator.
Technical activities considered by the group in Kaktovik, Alaska, included, but were not limited to:
  1. Analysis of the amount and condition of prey found in whale stomachs at Kaktovik and the stomach capacity of known-length whales.
  2. Aircraft observation of area whale behaviors and any near-surface prey concentrations
  3. Small-vessel plankton tows prior to and during the fall migration.
  4. Satellite imagery of relative marine-nutrient and other oceanographic conditions.
  5. Identification of bowhead feeding areas through analysis of radio-isotope ratios in the baleen.
  6. Computer modeling of feeding information to determine the relative importance of the eastern Alaskan Beaufort Sea to the bowhead whales.
  7. Acoustic characterization of potential feeding areas in the eastern Alaskan Beaufort Sea. Use of these data with existing noise-spreading models to predict sound levels received by feeding bowhead whales from hypothetical oil-industry noise sources at representative nearshore locations.
Proposed out-year research was subsequently presented to a Scientific Review Board (SRB) which included representatives from AEWC and NSB. The SRB concluded that a separate option for tracking bowhead whales using satellite tags, while not within the current budget, presented "a significant potential to provide information relevant to many questions concerning bowhead behavior and utilization (i.e., residence time) of the eastern Alaska Beaufort Sea."
Phase 2 - Field Work, Data Analysis, and Knowledge Synthesis: Guided by the SRB, the research has focussed on analyses of stomach contents, behavioral observations by aircraft, plankton tows by small vessel, radio isotope ratios in baleen annuli, fatty acid comparisons, recording of traditional knowledge, and computer modeling of feeding information.
Importance to MMS
The potential disturbance to bowhead whales by oil- and gas-industry activities and the importance of the eastern Alaskan Beaufort Sea to feeding bowhead whales were a partial basis for an MMS decision to adopt the Beaufort Sea Sale 144 Barter Island Deferral option. With additional information on the importance of the study area to feeding bowhead whales, alternative mitigation options for future Beaufort Sea lease sales may be feasible. Information from the study was cited in the Arctic Region Biological Evaluation and may help address potential critical habitat questions.
Current Status:
The draft final report was received in January 2002.
Final Report Due: April 2002 (est.)
Publications: Richardson, J. 2000. Bowhead Whale Feeding in the Eastern Alaskan Beaufort Sea: Update of Scientific and Traditional Information. In Alaska OCS Region Beaufort Sea Information Update Meeting Proceedings. OCS Study MMS 2000-023. Anchorage, AK: USDOI, MMS, Alaska OCS Region, 20 pp. & apps.

Thompson, D. 1999. Bowhead Whale Feeding in the Eastern Alaskan Beaufort Sea: Update of Scientific and Traditional Information. In Alaska OCS Region Seventh Information Transfer Meeting Proceedings. OCS Study MMS 99-0022. Anchorage, AK: USDOI, MMS, Alaska OCS Region, 58 pp. & apps.

Richardson, W.J. and D.H. Thomson. 1999. Bowhead Whale Feeding in the Eastern Alaskan Beaufort Sea: Update of Scientific and Traditional Information Retrospective and 1998 Results. LGL Report TA2196-2. 366 pp.
Affiliated WWW Sites: Something for Teachers & our younger Friends! Bowhead Whale Aerial Survey Project

Mammals and Sea Turtles Observations from GOM- NMFS Cruises (1998 - 2001) (GM-98-X11)
Revised date: March 2002
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