Collecting baleen whale blow samples by drone: A minimally intrusive tool for conservation genetics
Collecting exhaled breath condensate, or respiratory ‘blow’ samples, from baleen whales using an unoccupied aerial system (UAS) plays a vital role in informing conservation efforts.
Ship-Strike Forecast and Mitigation for Whales in Gitga’at First Nation Territory
As marine traffic increases globally, ship strikes have emerged as a primary threat to many baleen whale populations.
A Simulation-Based Tool for Predicting Whale-Vessel Encounter Rates
To understand the threat of ship strikes for marine predators such as whales, quantitative tools are needed that measure specific impacts without ignoring the many uncertain and stochastic elements of whale-vessel interactions.
Fin whales of the Great Bear Rainforest: Balaenoptera physalus velifera in a Canadian Pacific fjord system
Fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) are widely considered an offshore and oceanic species, but certain populations also use coastal areas and semi-enclosed seas.
CatRlog: A Photo-Identification Project Management System Based in R
Photo-identification (photo-ID) databases can comprise versatile troves of information for well-studied animal populations and, when organized well and curated carefully, can be readily applied to a wide range of research questions.
Social Survival: Humpback Whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) use Social Structure to Partition Ecological Niches Within Proposed Critical Habitat
Animal culture and social bonds are relevant to wildlife conservation because they influence patterns of geography, behavior, and strategies of survival.
Acoustic tracking of fin whales: Habitat use and movement patterns within a Canadian Pacific fjord system
Fin whale 20 Hz calls were detected, localized, and tracked using a 10 km aperture network of three acoustic receivers deployed for 11 months in a Pacific Canadian fjord system.
Calving rate decline in humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) of northern British Columbia, Canada
The population dynamics of large mammals are characterized by highly variable and relatively poor juvenile survival.
Automated localization of whales in coastal fjords
Localization and tracking of vocalizing marine mammals are powerful tools for understanding and mitigating the impacts of anthropogenic stressors such as vessel noise on habitat use of cetaceans.
Determining marine mammal detection functions for a stationary land-based survey site
The shore-based survey is a common, non-invasive, and low-cost method in marine mammal science, but its scientific applications are currently limited.
‘Whale wave’: shifting strategies structure the complex use of critical fjord habitat by humpbacks
A decade of visual surveys (2005-2014) revealed that humpbacks Megaptera novaeangliae occupy a temperate fjord system in British Columbia.
Abundance and Survival of Pacific Humpback Whales in a Proposed Critical Habitat Area
Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) were hunted commercially in Canada’s Pacific region until 1966.