Northern Right Whale Critical Habitat

The Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan (ALWTRP) (nero.noaa.gov/whaletrp/) is designed to protect Atlantic large whales - the western North Atlantic stock of right whales, the Gulf of Maine stock of humpback whales, and the western North Atlantic stock of fin whales. The Seasonal Area Management (SAM) program is intended to provide endangered North Atlantic right whales protection from entanglement with fishing gear used in fisheries.

The measures that have been identified for proposed rulemaking would require the reduction, elimination, and/or modification of certain types of fixed gear (i.e., gillnets and lobster traps) in specific areas off the Atlantic coast of the United States during times of the year when right whales are known to be present in significant concentrations in these areas. The Cape Cod Bay Critical Habitat eastern interior shore line boundary is snapped to the NOAA Medium-Resolution Vector Shoreline (ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/shorelines/noaamrdvs.html) and changed to Massachusetts State Plane Coordinate System, Mainland Zone, meters by the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management on August 25, 2006.