2025_programme: Characterizing Sei Whale (Balaenoptera borealis) Movement Patterns in the Gulf of Maine

• Day: June 17, Tuesday
    Location / Time: A. TERPSIHORI at 08:30 - 08:50
• Last minutes changes: -
• Session: 08a. Bioacoustics and Soundscape
  Organiser(s): Jennifer Miksis-Olds, Giacomo Giorli
  Chairperson(s): Jennifer Miksis-Olds, Giacomo Giorli
• Lecture: Characterizing Sei Whale (Balaenoptera borealis) Movement Patterns in the Gulf of Maine
  Paper ID: 2138
  Author(s): Emma VerGow, Jennifer Miksis-Olds, S. Bruce Martin
  Presenter: Emma VerGow
  Abstract: Sei whales are difficult to visually monitor due to their cryptic presence and lack of breaching; therefore, passive acoustic monitoring is now being used to expand this effort. The fine-scale temporal and spatial movements of sei whales in the Northwest Atlantic are unknown. The present study characterizes sei whale movement patterns related to migration dynamics in the Gulf of Maine. Five bottom-mounted Acoustic Long-Term Observatories landers, each equipped with a tetrahedral array of omni-directional hydrophones, were deployed throughout the Gulf of Maine. A combination of manual analysis and automated detections were used to assess sei whale daily presence and seasonality. Horizontal bearing estimation of detected vocalizations was used to examine sei whale directional movement patterns among sites. Absolute minimum number of animals present was calculated by totaling the number of directions that a species’ calls arrive over a short period of time (15 minutes). Daily abundance was defined by the highest absolute minimum number of any 15-minute time period throughout the course of the day. Data from 2021-2024 suggests that sei whales are present in spring and late fall/early winter. This effort will contribute to the improvement of regional soundscape modeling, automated detector accuracy, and acoustic density estimation methods.
• Corresponding author: Ms Emma VerGow
  Affiliation: University of New Hampshire
  Country: United States