| EK60 Water Column Sonar Data Collected During NF-12-05-SBNMS |
| Cruise NF-12-05-SBNMS (Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary) (EK60). The project
will place synchronous motion, acoustic recording tags on humpback and fin whales,
while concurrently measuring prey field size, shape and composition. The goal is to
understand water column use by endangered whales and how prey patch characteristics
influence whale behavior as a way to recommend mitigation measures related to collisions
between endangere d whales and commercial ships and/or fishing gear. Additionally,
whale acoustic data collected will allow us to evaluate the efficacy of passive acoustic
monitoring for these species by age and reproductive class. |
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