An Inter-agency Agreement has been established between the Minerals Management Service (MMS), Department of Interior (DOI) and the National Marine Mammal Laboratory (NMML), Alaska Fisheries Science Center, National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Department of Commerce (DOC).  The intent of this project is to conduct surveys of bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus) during their fall migration through the western Beaufort Sea.

This study was funded in part by MMS through Inter-agency Agreement No.13260 with NMFS as part of the MMS Alaska Environmental Studies Program. The MMS and its precursor the Bureau of Land Management have funded and/or conducted aerial surveys of the fall migration of bowhead whales through the western Beaufort Sea each year since 1979.  Starting in 2007, the Bowhead Whale Aerial Survey Project (BWASP) was coordinated through NMML, and in 2008 these surveys are being extended across the northeast Chukchi Sea to document marine mammal distribution for most of the period from mid-June to mid-November.

The daily reports provided on this site constitute preliminary field data and should not be cited. The reports have undergone a review for technical accuracy prior to posting on this site. However, additional processing and review after the field season may identify further changes that need to be made. Additional information on data or report quality and dissemination is available in the AFSC Disclaimer Statement and on NOAA's Office of the Chief Information Officer & High Performance Computing and Communications web page 

The following links are the aerial survey crew's daily reports (PDF - Adobe Acrobat Required):

¹ Daily reports now reflect corrected summaries for time entries.  The original summary tables had some erroneous totals for time on effort. Flight summaries with * updated 07/22/2008.

² The summary table for 08/10/2008 was corrected on 8/12/2008.