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The northern right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) is the most endangered marine mammal currently being protected under United States environmental regulations. The primary cause of human-induced mortality in this species is through entanglement with fishing gear and collisions with ships. Management of this species is the responsibility of NOAA Fisheries (National Marine Fisheries Service), and their management plan depends on knowing where whales are likely to be encountered. Under NOAA funding, we have recently designed and tested the feasibility of predicting whale aggregation areas within the Gulf of Maine using near-real-time satellite data. Our approach is based on the fact that foraging right whales are consistently found in areas where copepods, their primary food source, are abundant. Copepod growth rate is a function of water temperature and phytoplankton concentration which are both observable by satellites. We have received one year of funding from the previous NASA Decision Support CAN to begin building an integrated system solution. The new ISS will couple our copepod model to operational circulation fields derived from a high-resolution assimilative atmosphere-ocean circulation model that has recently been developed for the Gulf of Maine. The suite of models will synthesize information from a variety of earth science observations to provide high resolution estimates of right whale feeding areas. We seek funding through the present NASA CAN under the category of Coastal Management and Ecological Forecasting to further refine the predictive capabilities of this system. Initially, the right whale distribution estimates will be determined from the copepod forecasts by applying a threshold concentration established for Cape Cod Bay. These simple right whale likelihood maps will later be replaced by a prognostic right whale distribution model currently in development. The circulation, zooplankton, and right whale products will be validated by comparing them with available observations. The performance of the complete system and its potential impact on NOAA’s right whale management will be assessed through a quantitative comparison of the high resolution right whale forecasts to the climatological right whale distributions that underlie the current management strategy. Beginning next spring, data from our project will be incorporated into NOAA’s sighting advisory system to describe the environmental conditions surrounding known whale locations. Working with NOAA, we will investigate how our ISS can be used to minimize aerial survey time and to evaluate future management options.