Abundance Estimates

Cetaceans

North Atlantic – Abundance Estimates of Relevance to NAMMCO // All Cetacean Species – All Surveys (All estimates & Best estimates)

 

 Pinnipeds

An overview will be available soon.

Common minke whale sightings during all North Atlantic Sightings Surveys (NASS). Black lines indicate areas surveyed (not all areas surveyed in all years).

Surveys

To effectively manage the impacts humans have on marine mammals, we need to know how many animals are in the management area (abundance), and how this number varies over time (trends in abundance), i.e. is the population going up, down, stable? One way to get this information is to carry out sightings surveys to count or estimate the abundance of whales or seals in specific areas. Surveys for seals and whales can be carried out from planes and boats or from land, using different methodologies.

The video below is an animation created by the Greenland Institute for Natural Resources to illustrate the method the scientists use to estimate the abundance of cetaceans off Greenland.

"How to count marine mammals" - by Greenland Institute of Natural Resources

© Peter Duley, NOAA Fisheries

Abundance Surveys – Counting Whales

Counting harbour seals © Michael Poltermann/IMR

Abundance surveys – Counting seals

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