Mid-Atlantic Bight IMMA
Size in Square Kilometres
114 783 km2
Qualifying Species and Criteria
Common minke whale – Balaenoptera acutorostrata
Criterion C (2, 3)
Sei whale – Balaenoptera borealis
Criterion A; Criterion C (3)
Fin whale – Balaenoptera physalus
Criterion A; Criterion B (2); Criterion C (2)
North Atlantic right whale – Eubalaena glacialis
Criterion A; Criterion B (2); Criterion C (2,3)
Humpback whale – Megaptera novaeangliae
Criterion B (2); Criterion C (2)
Sperm whale – Physeter macrocephalus
Criterion A
Tamanend’s bottlenose dolphin – Tursiops erebennus
Criterion B (2)
Common bottlenose dolphin – Tursiops truncatus
Criterion B (2)
Marine Mammal Diversity
Balaenoptera acutorostrata, Balaenoptera borealis, Balaenoptera physalus, Eubalaena glacialis, Megaptera novaeangliae, Delphinus delphis, Globicephala macrorhynchus, Globicephala melas, Grampus griseus, Lagenorhynchus acutus, Phocoena Phocoena, Physeter macrocephalus, Stenella frontalis, Tursiops erebennus, Tursiops truncatus
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Summary
The Mid-Atlantic Bight IMMA is located along the east coast of the United States. It is bounded in the north by Nantucket Shoals and in the south by Cape Lookout, North Carolina. It extends from shore to the continental shelf break, delineated by the 150 m isobath. This area includes part of the Massachusetts Cape and Islands Ocean Sanctuary at the northern extent of the IMMA. This IMMA supports one of the most important feeding and aggregation areas in US waters for critically endangered North Atlantic right whales, as well as their main migratory corridor to the calving grounds. This area also provides foraging habitat for multiple large whale species (fin whale, humpback whale, minke whale), one of which is listed as Vulnerable (fin whales). This area also supports a high diversity of marine mammals, with at least 15 cetacean species regularly present, and 2 pinniped species.
Description of Qualifying Criteria
Criterion A – Species or Population Vulnerability
The IUCN Red List lists four Qualifying Species in this region: the North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis ; Cooke 2020) is Critically Endangered, the sei whale (Balaenoptera borealis) is Endangered (Cooke 2018a), and both the fin whale (B. physalus; Cooke 2018b) and the sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus; Taylor et al. 2019) are Vulnerable.
Criterion B: Distribution and Abundance
Sub-criterion B2: Aggregations
The IMMA includes an important high-use habitat for North Atlantic right whales, which aggregate in large numbers to feed in southern New England, particularly south of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard. Both visual and passive acoustic data have demonstrated right whale presence in this area across all seasons (e.g., Davis et al., 2017, Quintana-Rizzo et al. 2021). Right whale abundance was found to increase in this area between 2013 and 2019 (O’Brien et al. 2022), and prior studies have indicated that over 20% of the species is present from December through May (Quintana-Rizzo et al. 2021). A recent study based on aerial survey data documented that 60% of the species population was using this habitat within a single 4-month period in 2023 (McKenna et al. 2023), and a minimum of 100 individuals (~30% of the population) were sighted via an aerial survey on a single day in 2019 (NMFS survey data). At least 30%-50% of known reproductive females use this area (Leiter et al. 2017, Quintana-Rizzo et al. 2021).
Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) have been the most frequently detected baleen whales off New York in recent years (King et al. 2021, Zoidis et al. 2021, Chou et al. 2022). Between 2018-2020, they were encountered at a rate of 1.99 per 1,000 km of aerial sighting effort in the New York Bight (Zoidis et al. 2021). Over 100 individual humpback whales were photo-identified in New York Bight waters from 2012 through 2018, with a mean within-season occupancy of 37.6 days (range: 2-141) and confirmed annual return (Brown et al. 2022). Juveniles are the predominant demographic class of humpback whales across this IMMA (Swingle et al. 1993, Wiley et al. 1995, Barco et al. 2002, Aschettino et al. 2020 Stepanuk et al. 2021, Brown et al. 2022) .
Fin whales are the second most frequently sighted baleen whale off New York in this IMMA. Between 2017-2020, they were encountered at a rate of 1.47 per 1,000 km of effort in the New York Bight (Zoidis et al. 2021). Aggregations have been known to form in the vicinity of Montauk, New York (e.g. Sadove and Matlock-Cooley 1991, Kopelman and Sadove 1995, Chou et al. 2022).
Common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) were the most frequently encountered cetacean in surveys conducted off New Jersey in 2008-2009, and they were estimated to number 761 (95% CI: 362-1,600) in spring and as many as 1,537 animals in summer (95% CI: 758-3119, Whitt et al. 2015).
Criterion C: Key Life Cycle Activities
Sub-criterion C2: Feeding Areas
The IMMA encompasses one of the current primary foraging habitats for North Atlantic right whales in US waters (Leiter et al. 2017, Quintana-Rizzo et al. 2021, O’Brien et al. 2022, Meyer‐Gutbrod et al. 2023). North Atlantic right whales aggregate to feed south of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, mainly in winter and spring, but in recent years have occupied the area every month of the year (Quintana-Rizzo et al. 2021). Right whale abundance was found to increase in this area between 2013 and 2019 (O’Brien et al. 2022), and a recent study based on aerial survey data found 60% of the species was documented in this habitat within a 4-month period in 2023 (McKenna et al. 2023). North Atlantic right whales have been observed displaying feeding behaviours (e.g. open-mouthed swimming) in all seasons and across years (Quintana-Rizzo et al. 2021); observations which have also been corroborated with biologging tag data (unpublished). Similar feeding behaviors have been observed but less frequently further south, including off New York (Zoidis et al. 2021), New Jersey (Whitt et al. 2013), and Virginia (Englehaupt et al. 2020).
Within this IMMA, fin, humpback, and common minke (Balaenopatera acutorostrata) whales have also been regularly observed feeding, both separately and in multi-species aggregations (CETAP 1982, Kopelman and Sadove, 1995, Brown et al. 2018, King et al. 2021, Stepanuk et al. 2021, Lomac-MacNair et al. 2022, Smith et al. 2022). A three-year study in the New York Bight based on over 680 hrs of aerial survey data documented foraging behaviour in 27% of the recorded fin whale sightings, 40% of the humpback whale sightings, and 18% of the minke whale sightings (Lomac-MacNair et al., 2022). Sighting rates of foraging whales were highest in the summer (4.4 whales/1,000 km effort). In a separate study compiling 8 years of data collected from whale watching vessels in the New York Bight apex, 40% of sightings (321/787 sightings) of humpback whales, including lunge feeding activity (Smith et al. 2022).
Humpback whales have also been observed surface feeding off coastal Virginia, primarily from fall through spring (Swingle et al. 1993). In a satellite tagging study conducted off the Chesapeake Bay from 2015-2017, 35 humpback whales were outfitted with satellite tags. Hierarchical state-space modeling results suggest that these animals spent 82.0% of their time engaged in foraging behavior (Aschettino et al., 2020).
Sub-criterion C3: Migration Routes
The Mid-Atlantic Bight (MAB) is a well-known migratory corridor for North Atlantic right whales, as they migrate between their feeding grounds in Southern New England, the Gulf of Maine, and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and their calving grounds in the South Atlantic Bight. This migratory route includes reproductively mature females, pregnant females, juveniles, and young calves as well as mature males (Schick et al. 2013, Oedekoven et al. 2015). Northward migratory patterns have been studied both via modeling and with limited satellite telemetry data. Modelling analyses based on extensive sightings data suggest a mean northward migration speed of 2.8–3.1 km/h (e.g., Firestone et al. 2008). This is complemented by satellite telemetry data showing the migration of whales through the MAB, including a mother with calf moving from Florida to the Gulf of Maine in 1996 at an average speed of 26.0 km/d (Schick et al. 2009), a reproductively active female moving from the Bay of Fundy to the calving ground in 2000 at an average speed of 44.2 km/d (Schick et al. 2009), and a male moving from coastal Virginia to Massachusetts (HDR, unpublished data).
Sei and minke whales display strong seasonal shifts in density (Roberts et al., 2023), indicative of migratory behaviour, with highest densities in spring, where it is likely that these species feed as they migrate through from southerly calving grounds to summer feeding grounds in the Gulf of Maine and farther north. These results for sei whales are consistent with prior analysis of whaling data at the Blandford, Nova Scotia whaling station further north by Mitchell (1975), who reported two “runs” of sei whales, one in June and another in October. Passive acoustic data collected throughout this IMMA show similar patterns in seasonal occurrence. In a multi-year passive acoustic monitoring study spanning Davis Strait down to the Caribbean, minke whale detections peaked off New York within the Mid-Atlantic Bight from mid-March through mid-May (Risch et al., 2014).
Criterion D: Special Attributes
Sub-criterion D2: Diversity
The Mid-Atlantic Bight is noted for its cetacean diversity, with 5 species of baleen whales regularly utilising the area, at least 10 species of odontocetes, and 2 species of pinniped. The baleen whale species include the common minke whale, fin, humpback, and sei whales, as well as the North Atlantic right whale. The odontocete species include Atlantic spotted dolphin (Stenella frontalis), Atlantic white-sided dolphin (Lagenorhynchus acutus), common dolphin (Delphinus delphis), harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena), Risso’s dolphin (Grampus griseus), short- and long-finned pilot whales ( Globicephala macrorhynchus, G. melas), sperm whales, and bottlenose dolphins, which are now known to likely include two species: the common bottlenose dolphin as well as the newly identified Tamanends’s bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops erebennus).
Cetacean species richness was estimated by two different methods by Roberts et al. (2023; FIgure 1) and Hodge et al. (2022; FIgures 2, 3). The latter reported relatively high diversity values along the Mid-Atlantic Bight as compared to other areas to the south. At the time of those studies, only one species of bottlenose dolphin was recognized in this region; however, new evidence presented by Costa et al. (2022) indicates that the long-recognized coastal and offshore morphotypes comprise two distinct species (Tamanend’s bottlenose dolphin and common bottlenose dolphin). While more work is needed to fully describe the range of the Tamanend’s bottlenose dolphin, evidence suggests that both species are present in the Mid-Atlantic Bight region (Torres et al. 2003).
Supporting Information
Aschettino, J.M., Engelhaupt, D.T., Engelhaupt, A.G., DiMatteo, A., Pusser, T., Richlen, M.F. and Bell, J.T., 2020. Satellite telemetry reveals spatial overlap between vessel high-traffic areas and humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) near the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. Frontiers in Marine Science, 7, p.121.
Barco SG, McLellan WA, Allen JM, Asmutis-Silvia RA, Mallon-Day R, Meagher EM, Pabst DA, Robbins J, Seton RE, Swingle WM, Weinrich MT, Clapham PJ. 2002. Population identity of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) in the waters of the US mid-Atlantic states. Journal of Cetacean Research and Management 4(2):135-141.
Brown D, Robbins J, Sieswerda PL, Schoelkopf R, Parsons ECM. 2018. Humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) sightings in the New York-New Jersey Harbor Estuary. Marine Mammal Science 34:250-257.
Brown DM, Robbins J, Sieswerda PL, Ackerman C, Aschettino JM, Barco S, Boye T, DiGiovanni Jr. RA, Durham K, Engelhaupt A, Hill A, Howes L, Johnson KF, Jones L, King CD, Kopelman AH, Laurino M, Lonergan S, Mallette SD, Pepe M, Ramp C, Rayfield K, Rekdahl M, Rosenbaum HC, Schoelkopf R, Schulte D, Sears R, Stepanuk JEF, Tackaberry JE, Weinrich M, Parsons ECM, Wiedenmann J. 2022. Site fidelity, population identity, and demographic characteristics of humpback whales in the New York Bight apex. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 102(1-2):157-165.
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Costa, A.P., Mcfee, W., Wilcox, L.A., Archer, F.I. and Rosel, P.E., 2022. The common bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) ecotypes of the western North Atlantic revisited: an integrative taxonomic investigation supports the presence of distinct species. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 196(4), pp.1608-1636.
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Leiter, S.M., Stone, K.M., Thompson, J.L., Accardo, C.M., Wikgren, B.C., Zani, M.A., Cole, T.V.N., Kenney, R.D., Mayo, C.A. and Kraus, S.D., 2017. North Atlantic right whale Eubalaena glacialis occurrence in offshore wind energy areas near Massachusetts and Rhode Island, USA. Endangered Species Research, 34, pp.45-59.
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