Why Study Marine Mammals?

Marine mammals spend most or all of their lives in ocean environments and provide many benefits to humans globally and are key contributors to marine ecosystems. Marine mammals are vital to many cultures’ spiritual, nutritional, or economic health. In addition, marine mammals play key roles in ocean ecosystems, including: as predators and prey; by modifying or creating habitat for other marine organisms as they forage on invertebrates living in soft sediments and as their own carcasses decompose; and affecting carbon and nutrient cycling pathways and rates.

A number of human and environmental stressors may impact marine mammal health. Human activities introduce noise, contaminants, and physical disturbances into the marine environment; humans can also affect marine food webs, which may affect the availability of marine mammals’ preferred prey. Environmental stressors include changes in physical oceanographic variables, such as temperature and salinity, which may affect ocean circulation and have cascading effects on predator-prey relationships, reproductive success, marine mammal culture, species distributions, and population abundance.

To provide the information necessary to effectively conserve and manage marine mammal populations, it is important to understand their distributions, population abundances and vital rates, behavioral ecology, and risk factors.

Program Directors
Megan Ferugson, Ph.D.
Michael Wethingon, Ph.D.

Contributing Staff
Merra Howe, M.S.
Jeff Morris, Ph.D.

New published paper: Spatially explicit models of density improve estimates of Eastern Bering Sea beluga (Delphinapterus leucas) abundance and distribution from line-transect surveys

𝗕𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗡𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗘𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻 𝗕𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗦𝗲𝗮 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝘂𝗴𝗮𝘀! New research utilizing spatially explicit density models on aerial survey data of Eastern Bering Sea beluga whales provides more accurate and detailed estimates of their abundance and distribution compared to conventional analysis methods.

By accounting for fine-scale spatial variation and incorporating modern modeling techniques, this approach reveals patterns in beluga habitat use that were previously hidden. These insights not only enhance our understanding of marine mammal populations but also support more effective monitoring, conservation, and management strategies for belugas and other wide-ranging species in dynamic, changing marine environments!

Check out the full article here.

Highlighted Species We Study

Harbor Seal

Beluga Whale

Weddell Seal

Harbor Porpoise

Humpback Whale

Marine Mammal Research at BRI

Contaminants Monitoring

BRI is working with Allied Whale to conduct contaminants work.

Movement and Tracking Studies

BRI works with NOAA to study Navy harbor porpoise and harbor seals.

Inventory and Population Studies

BRI conducts whale surveys as part of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority marine mammal input.

Program Expertise

  • Passive acoustic monitoring and data analysis
  • Distance sampling analysis
  • Density surface modeling
  • Abundance estimation
  • Field surveys and ecological data collection
  • Satellite- and drone-based remote sensing
  • Computer vision and machine learning for wildlife monitoring

Related links: Wildlife Remote Acoustic Imagery Lab : Quantitative Wildlife Ecology Research Lab

Select Publications

Mercury in the Global Environment: Marine Mammals. A series publication by BRI’s Center for Mercury Studies, September 2017

Ferguson, M.C., J.T. Clarke, A.A. Brower, A.L. Willoughby, and S.R. Okkonen. 2021. Ecological variation in the western Beaufort Sea. In: J.C. George and J.G.M. Thewissen (Eds.), The Bowhead Whale Balaena mysticetus: biology and human interactions. Academic Press, pp. 365-379.

Ferguson, M.C., D.L. Miller, J.T. Clarke, A.A. Brower, A.L. Willoughby, and A.D. Rotrock. 2022. Spatial modeling, parameter uncertainty, and precision of density estimates from line-transect surveys: a case study with Western Arctic bowhead whales. Paper SC/68d/ASI/01 presented to the IWC Scientific Committee, May 2022.

Ferguson, M.C., S.F. Tóth, J.T. Clarke, A.L. Willoughby, A.A. Brower, and T.P. White. 2023. Biologically Important Areas for Bowhead Whales (Balaena mysticetus): Optimal site selection with integer programming. Frontiers in Marine Science 10: 961163. DOI 10.3389/fmars.2023.961163.

Clarke, J.T., M.C. Ferguson, A.A. Brower, E. Fujioka, and S. DeLand. 2023. Biologically Important Areas II for cetaceans in U.S. and adjacent waters – Arctic region. Frontiers in Marine Science 10:1040123. DOI 10.3389/fmars.2023.1040123.

Halliday, W.D., N. Le Baron, J.J. Citta, J. Dawson, T. Doniol-Valcroze, M. Ferguson, S.H. Ferguson, S. Fortune, L.A. Harwood, M.P. Heide-Jørgensen, E.V. Lea, L. Quakenbush, B.G. Young, D. Yurkowski, and S.J. Insley. 2022. Overlap between bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus) and vessel traffic in the North American Arctic and implications for conservation and management. Biological Conservation 276: 109820. DOI 10.1016/j.biocon.2022.109820.

Harrison, J., M.C. Ferguson, L. New, J. Cleary, C. Curtice, S. DeLand, E. Fujioka, P.N. Halpin, R.B. Tyson Moore, and S.M. Van Parijs. 2023. Biologically Important Areas II for cetaceans within U.S. and adjacent waters – Updates and the application of a new scoring system. Frontiers in Marine Science 10:1081893. DOI 10.3389/fmars.2023.1081893.

Crance, J.L., C.L. Berchok, B.M. Kimber, J.M. Harlacher, E.K. Braen, and M.C. Ferguson. 2022. Year-round distribution of bearded seals, Erignathus barbatus, throughout the Alaskan Chukchi and northern Bering Sea. Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography 206: 105215. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr2.2022.105215.

Wethington, M., Gonçalves, B. C., Talis, E., Şen, B., & Lynch, H. J. (2024). Species classification of Antarctic pack‐ice seals using very high‐resolution imagery. Marine Mammal Science, 40(2), e13088.

Wethington, M. J., Şen, B., & Lynch, H. J. (2024). Predicting pack-ice seal occupancy of ice floes along the Western Antarctic Peninsula. PLOS ONE, 19(12), e0311747.

Gonçalves, B. C., Wethington, M., & Lynch, H. J. (2022). SealNet 2.0: Human-level fully automated pack-ice seal detection in very-high-resolution satellite imagery with CNN model ensembles. Remote Sensing, 14(22), 5655.

Gulland FMD, Baker JD, Howe M, LaBrecque E, Leach L, Moore SE, Reeves RR, Thomas PO. A review of climate change effects on marine mammals in United States waters: Past predictions, observed impacts, current research and conservation imperatives. Climate Change Ecology. 2022 February 22; 3:100054. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecochg.2022.100054

Howe M, Lammers MO. Investigating the spatiotemporal occurrence of odontocetes around Maui Nui and Oahu using passive acoustic techniques. Pacific science. 2021 May 03; 75(1):147-161. Available from: https://bioone.org/journals/pacific-science/volume-75/issue-1/75.1.7/Investigating-the-Diel-Occurrence-of-Odontocetes-around-the-Maui-Nui/10.2984/75.1.7.short DOI: https://doi.org/10.2984/75.1.7

Howe M, Lammers MO, Baird RW. Participatory science and directed survey methods: a case study with odontocetes in the Maui Nui region of the Hawaiian Islands. Journal of cetacean research and management. 2019 January 01; 20:101–109. DOI: https://doi.org/10.47536/jcrm.v20i1.235

Lammers MO, Howe M, McElligott M, Engelhaupt A, Munger L. Acoustic monitoring of coastal dolphins and their response to naval mine neutralization exercises. Royal Society open science. 2017 December 06; 4:170558. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.170558

Howe M, Castellote M, Garner C, McKee P, Small RJ, Hobbs R. Beluga (Delphinaterus leucas) ethogram: a tool for Cook Inlet beluga conservation. Marine Fisheries Review. 2015 July; 77(1):32-40. DOI: dx.doi.org/10.7755/MFR.77.1.3