SWIMM: Saving Whales with Innovative Monitoring and Mitigation

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The 2017 North Atlantic right whale (NARW) mortality crisis required immediate, broad-sweeping actions to mitigate lethal risk from vessel strikes and fishing gear entanglement. The actions appear successful at considerable cost to government, industry and local economies. Monitoring, policy and management needs to be more adaptable to new knowledge on NARW presence and distribution in Canada to prevent extinction and protect Canadian market access. We propose research that advances state-of-the-art NARW assessment and monitoring technology to quantify risks and develop adaptive, sustainable solutions to protect the whales in a changing ocean. We will pursue four research themes. The 1st focuses low-cost, real-time passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) of the whales using autonomous underwater gliders. The 2nd will identify environmental and anthropogenic causes and consequences of habitat variability. The 3rd will better quantify whale health and environmental contaminants. The 4th assess vessel strike and fishing gear risk and mitigation options, including the development and dissemination of near real-time risk estimates to inform dynamic and targeted risk mitigation. This vigorous multidisciplinary program is made possible through collaborations with 20+ organizations from all sectors in Canada and internationally. The program is retrospective in assessing the efficacy of previous and existing risk-mitigation strategies, timely in ensuring decision-makers have the best information regarding current regulations, and forward-looking by proposing dynamic, data-driven solutions that are mindful of economic and conservation goals. The technologies and expertise developed through our research will help solidify Canada's role as a global leader in whale research and ocean technology, while training the next generation of young scientists. Referees should recognize that in addition to D Barclay (co-PI), the majority of the proposal was written by a bright future generation: Dr K Davies, Dr J van der Hoop, H Johnson, M Carr and D Durette-Morin.