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Conservation Headlines
3/12/2025
IFAW and Cornell University Deploy High-Tech Acoustic Buoys in Cape Cod Bay to Protect Highly Endangered Right Whales
CAPE COD, Mass., March 12 /PRNewswire/ -- The International Fund for
Animal Welfare (IFAW -- www.ifaw.org) today continued with its highly
successful, $150,000 right whale acoustic buoy project, when 5 buoys were
deployed into Cape Cod Bay, with the assistance of Cornell University and the
Center for Coastal Studies (CCS). Data from the buoys will be used to compile
key information that may provide the key to the survival of this highly
endangered, great whale species.
The buoys are built of clear glass spheres containing sophisticated
passive acoustic monitoring devices, computer equipment and battery power.
They are anchored close to the sea floor and will record right whale calls and
ship noise over a 40 day period.
During this period, whale distribution near the buoys will be monitored by
CCS aerial surveys.
Scientists from IFAW and Cornell University will retrieve the buoys by
activating an automatic release system. The acoustic data, when combined with
data from aerial and boat based surveys, will help researchers to understand
how the acoustic data can be combined with the other survey data to best
monitor and predict the movements of right whales in the shipping lanes along
the east coast of the United States.
North Atlantic right whales -- the world's most rare whale species --
number around 300 and are highly susceptible to vessel strikes, as shipping
lanes cut through the whales' critical habitat. Sixteen right whales are known
to have died from ship strikes over the past three decades, while scientists
believe many more may be affected but their bodies are never found. Ship
strikes and entanglement in fishing gear are the primary human-induced threats
to right whales and may be largely responsible for the failure of right whales
to recover from the effects of commercial whaling.
"Currently, the population of North Atlantic right whales is dwindling
dramatically," said Jared Blumenfeld, Director of IFAW's Habitat for Animals
Program. "If this decline cannot be reversed, scientists predict that the
right whale will be extinct in less than 200 years. By using this acoustic
technology, IFAW hopes to prevent ship strikes with these great whales,
bringing them back from the brink of extinction."
When the whales depart from Cape Cod Bay, additional acoustic buoys to be
deployed in the Great South Channel off of Cape Cod, will track them for a
further six weeks, providing a much longer study period than last year's 40-
day deployment by IFAW.
"We hope to use the information we gather to develop a system of
intelligent acoustic buoys that can be placed in Great South Channel shipping
lanes, and which can automatically relay right whale location information to
shore via satellite," said IFAW Right Whale Team Leader, Anna Moscrop.
Editor Notes: For more details on IFAW's efforts to protect the North
Atlantic right whale, visit www.rightwhales.org
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