NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service today announced the renewal of the Atlantic Marine Assessment Program for Protected Species (AMAPPS) for an additional five years through 2023. AMAPPS, which is funded primarily by NOAA, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and U.S. Navy, aims to develop models and tools to provide distribution patterns and density estimates by season and location that includes habitat characteristics for marine mammals, turtles, and seabirds along the U.S. Atlantic Coast. The next phase will expand to include investigation of larval tuna samples.
Northeast Fisheries Science Center research biologist Debra Palka said that “[l]ong-term year-round ecological data on protected species and their environment in the Atlantic are limited,” adding that “aerial and shipboard observations, oceanographic sampling, telemetry and passive acoustic monitoring supported by AMAPPS give us data that can be used to quantify changing distributions and assess the potential impact on protected species caused by human activities.”
NMFS notes that AMAPPS sighting data has been used in other density models including the Northeast Ocean Data Portal, which it says can be used for coastal and ocean planning and management, siting issues, education, and research.
