SC/69B/NH/03  

Document Number

SC/69B/NH/03

Full Title

Population status update for North Atlantic right whales: 2023-2024

Author

Daniel Linden, Allison Henry, Danielle Cholewiak

Authors Summary

To come

Publisher

IWC

Keywords

Publication Year

2024

Abstract

The North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) is listed as endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) and critically endangered on the IUCN Red List. Despite ongoing management measures by both the U.S. and Canada, the species continues to decline in abundance (Linden 2023). The median total abundance during 2022 calculated from the posterior of a Bayesian, hierarchical state-space model was 356 (95% credible interval 346-363). Those model results continue to show a diverging sex ratio with an estimate of only 147 (140-153) females in the population during 2022 (Figure 1). As noted in Pace et al. (2017) the last estimate in the time series from this model is slightly biased low in expectation, however the continued downward trend in estimated abundance is well demonstrated. The overall abundance decline between 2011 and 2022 was 26% (derived from 2011 and 2022 median point estimates).