The Whitehead Lab and Northern Bottlenose Whales
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Since 1988, the Whitehead Lab northern bottlenose whale research program has collected acoustic, visual, genetic and photographic data focused on the endangered Scotian Shelf population residing in the area of the Gully submarine canyon, a Marine Protected Area (MPA) in the northwest Atlantic. Our long term research program has been acknowledged as contributing information vital to the conservation and management of the Gully MPA and northern bottlenose whales in Canada.
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Links
Current Projects
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Laura Joan Feyrer (Ph.D. Candidate): My PhD research is examining the distribution, connectivity and persistence of northern bottlenose whale populations along the slope of the Canadian continental shelf in the northwest Atlantic. In 2016 we discovered an aggregation of bottlenose whales off Newfoundland that has not yet been formally recognized and work is underway to better understand northern bottlenose whale population structure. Given the pressures from anthropogenic threats in the Sackville Spur this is a potential conservation concern for bottlenose whales in Canada. I am using multiple streams of evidence from habitat models, photo-identification studies, stable isotopes, genetics, fatty acids and trace elements to create a picture of population and habitat structure to support improved conservation and management of the species.
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