27 June 2024: NASS 2024 is underway!

The North Atlantic Sighting Survey (NASS) series, a significant international effort to monitor cetacean abundance and distribution in the North Atlantic, is gearing up for its seventh survey since its inception in 1987. Cetaceans, known for their long-distance travel across national borders, require a coordinated approach to effectively monitor their populations. In NASS, several countries coordinate their surveys to cover as wide a range as possible at the same time. NASS 2024 will focus on four primary species: fin whales, humpback whales, minke whales, and pilot whales. The data gathered will offer insights into trends in whale abundance and any changes in their distribution over nearly four decades.

All four member countries of the North Atlantic Marine Mammal Commission (NAMMCO) will participate in NASS 2024. Surveys in Greenland will be conducted by plane, while the Faroe Islands, Iceland, and Norway will use ships. These surveys will employ both dedicated vessels and opportunistic ones—vessels on missions for other purposes, such as redfish and mackerel surveys, that will have observers onboard aiming at counting whales.

The new interactive NASS site allows users to follow survey updates of the NASS 2024.