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Background
A remarkable event takes place in the coastal waters of northeastern Florida. Each year from December through March, right whales migrate to this area to give birth and nurse their calves in warm, protected waters, before again returning north to feeding grounds off New England and Canada. South of approximately St. Augustine, Florida, some right whales come in close to shore ? sometimes within a quarter mile of the beach. Mothers can be seen with young-of-the-year calves, and juvenile whales may be seen traveling or playing. It is in these waters that a volunteer-based citizen network is growing and contributing to science, conservation, and stewardship of the species and its habitat. The Marineland Right Whale Project works along the coastline from the St. Augustine to Ponce Inlets ? a distance of about 50 nautical miles. The project began in 2001, and now includes about 200 volunteers.

The North Atlantic right whale, Eubalaena glacialis. This highly endangered species has a total population size of about 500, and gives birth to about 12 calves a year. The calving and nursing occur in coastal waters of northeast Florida from December through March. Adult whales are about 45 ft in length, and the calves about 16 ft. Because of the small numbers and low reproductive rate, protection and stewardship are essential.

In addition to the small population size and low reproductive rate, right whales face an additional challenge: human impacts. Whales become entangled in fishing gear, are struck by vessels, and sometimes are harassed by boaters. Therefore, monitoring of the population in these waters has two principal objectives: 1) mitigating human impacts (ship strikes and gear entanglement), and 2) studying distribution, abundance, demographics, reproduction, behavior, and habitat use so as to enhance conservation and recovery of the species.

Why was the Marineland Right Whale Project established?
Scientists, conservationists, and resource managers are faced with a difficult task. Each year from December through March, a relatively small number of whales, generally fewer than 100, occur in a large area (400 nautical miles of coastline from North Carolina to Florida). While near-daily aerial surveys take place in some areas, they are only partially effective. In other areas, aerial surveys are few and coverage is poor. The Project's solution to "a small number of whales distributed over a large area" is to increase the number of eyes looking -- i.e., "if you want to catch more fish, use a bigger net."

What are the Project's Guiding Principles?

• Government and scientists alone cannot provide the resources or information required. A large, effective, and complementary effort is being provided by volunteer citizen scientists.
• Homegrown and grassroots projects are more creative, more likely to take hold, and more likely to produce results than externally directed government initiatives.
• Better information leads to better decisions.
• A remarkable event takes place in Florida coastal waters. This program helps to ensure that this event will continue for this and future generations.

What are the Project's Goals?

• Successful co-existence of whales and humans in the coastal waters of Florida
• An engaged and knowledgeable public

What are the Program Components to accomplish these Goals?
During the course of six seasons, the Project's volunteer sighting network has evolved, incorporating refinements and innovation. Currently, a number of interrelated components are essential to the overall success.

• Dedicated teams: These form the backbone of the Project. A 40 nmi survey area is partitioned into four sectors, each with five to six lookout points. Each morning, mobile teams, consisting of two to three persons and a vehicle, meet at 08:00 and visit each point within their sector twice. Each team is equipped with cell phone, binoculars, clipboard, and survey/sighting forms. In addition, four private communities have similarly organized teams, who look out from their shorefront units or community dune walkovers.
• Opportunistic sighting: Before and during the season, phone cards with right whale sighting information are widely distributed to residents, visitors, and workers who spend time at the beach. A wide variety of people are educated about the program, encouraged to be on the lookout, and encouraged to phone if a sighting is made.
• Right Whale Hotline. A central toll-free call-in phone hotline is maintained by the Marine Resources Council (a collaborator). Citizens call in sightings and MRC staff follow-up to gather specific information. They notify Project response teams when the sighting is in the Project's area. The hotline number is fully staffed during the season.
• Response teams. When a sighting is reported, the Project deploys a response team with experienced individuals, cameras, and GPS units. Photo-documentation and data on movements and behavior are recorded. Teams track the whales as long as possible, sometimes for the entire day.
• Aircraft surveys and response. Since 2002, the Project has utilized an AirCam, a twin-engine, slow-flight aircraft developed for National Geographic wildlife surveys, for both aerial surveys and sighting/photo responses.
• Education and outreach. Volunteer training and public education is achieved through presentations, seminars, and a resource center established at Marineland. The resource center has a library of books and videos, and exhibits of baleen, copepods, and whale lice.
• Collaboration. A successful project requires many partners. The Project routinely collaborates with other scientists, managers, agencies, and institutions involved with right whale protection in this area. This includes the Marine Resources Council in Palm Bay, FL, the New England Aquarium, the states of Georgia and Florida, the Army Corps of Engineers, the National Marine Fisheries Service, the Navy, the Coast Guard, and the Guana-Tolomato-Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve (GTM NERR).
• Data processing, analysis, synthesis, and presentation. Project researchers archive, sort, select, and submit photos to the New England Aquarium for individual right whale identification. Data are likewise quality controlled and processed. Presentations and publications are prepared. Every hour in the field requires several hours of follow-up.

What are the Roles of the Project's Volunteers?
The volunteers in the Marineland Right Whale Project have multiple roles:

• search for and sight right whales
• assist with data recording and photography
• document potential human impacts
• help inform and educate the public
• provide stewardship for whales and their habitats
• serve as the eyes, ears, and voice for right whales in coastal waters of Florida

What is the value of Volunteer Networks?
There are numerous examples of volunteer networks providing valuable information to the science and management of environmental resources (e.g., Audubon bird counts, Monarch butterfly migration studies, Chesapeake Bay Water Quality network, and the Florida manatee watchers). Well-known, too, are groups like "Riverkeepers" and "Baywatchers" that have grown in number all over the country. The rise of citizen science represents a valuable form of data collection for science, and has been shown to play a critical role in the gathering of long-term data on wildlife and habitats. With continuing improvement and refinement, the shore-based right whale sighting network is another example of valuable and cost-effective citizen involvement in environmental conservation and recovery efforts.

Make a Difference
The Marineland Right Whale Project joins with many collaborators to learn enough about right whales and their coastal habitat so that right whales and humans can successfully co-exist - for this and future generations. To accomplish this, the Project trains, coordinates, and equips citizen scientist volunteers to conduct whale surveys and collect critical data. Depending on your availability, there are several levels where you can contribute.

• If you have limited time, but live on or near the beach, or spend time on or near the ocean, you can keep our phone card handy and call when you have a sighting.
• If you can volunteer at least 4 hours a week, don't mind some walking and like to be outdoors, we have dedicated mobile survey teams who search from designated lookout points during specific times of the day.
• If you live in an ocean-side condo or community, you can join together with fellow residents to establish and staff your own survey point.
• If you prefer indoor activities, we need volunteers to answer telephones, perform light office work, build and maintain a website, assist with designing and producing education and outreach materials, and handling donations.

Remember, these are YOUR whales. Ultimately, their survival depends on caring and committed citizens. Contact us today!