March 27, 2025 — A state program announced this week will enable researchers to monitor North Atlantic right whales off the Massachusetts coast using a system of buoys and underwater recorders that provide information to more effectively manage fishing closures and ship speed limits, officials say.
The program’s goal is to build a more thorough understanding of right whale patterns and aid in efforts to reduce human impact on the endangered species of about 370 individuals, researchers said.
“We want to make sure [fishing and shipping lane] closures are as effective as possible without being unnecessarily burdensome,” Erin Burke, manager of the Division of Marine Fisheries Protected Species Program, said in a call Wednesday.
The new monitoring network is comprised of two passive acoustic monitoring buoys and 17 archival monitoring moorings, Burke said.