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Long-Distance Movement of a Sei Whale in the North Atlantic, 2005
Citation
Olsen, E. 2013. Long-Distance Movement of a Sei Whale in the North Atlantic, 2005. https://marineinfo.org/id/dataset/4260
Contact: Olsen, Erik ; Olsen, Erik ;

Access data
Archived data
Availability: Creative Commons License This dataset is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Description

Long-distance migration for most species of baleen whales is poorly understood because of the practical difficulties and substantial expense involved in gathering relevant data. Presently, satellite tracking is the only method that delivers the necessary detail and quantitative data on movement patterns on far-ranging marine mammals. In this study, ARGOS satellite tags were deployed on North Atlantic sei whales (<i>Balaenoptera borealis</i>) at the Azores Islands. The results show the largescale movement potential of North Atlantic sei whales from wintering grounds to highly productive potential feeding areas in the Labrador Sea. 

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Results: Data from one whale showed a cumulative 4,102 km movement from tagging at Faial Island in the Azores on 12 April 2005 via the Charlie Gibbs Fracture Zone (CGFZ) to the Labrador Sea where transmissions stopped on 7 June 2005. For a portion of the distance from CGFZ to the Labrador Sea, the whale moved in the prevailing direction of the surface current pattern. Erratic movement in five areas along the movement track indicates feeding behavior, particularly in the CGFZ. 

Original provider: Erik Olsen, Institute of Marine Research 

Dataset credits: Erik Olsen and Leif Nøttestad, Institute of Marine Research 

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to track sei whales from winter grounds off the Azores to summer feeding grounds in the North Atlantic 

Supplemental information: All location classes are visualized. There is a gap from location of tagging to first transmission.


Scope
Keywords:
Marine/Coastal, Occurrence, Radio transmitters, EurOBIS calculated BBOX, Balaenoptera borealis Lesson, 1828

Geographical coverage
EurOBIS calculated BBOX Stations
Bounding Box
Coordinates: MinLong: -55,506; MinLat: 38,5698 - MaxLong: -29,1363; MaxLat: 56,083 [WGS84]

Temporal coverage
13 April 2005 - 7 June 2005

Taxonomic coverage
Balaenoptera borealis Lesson, 1828 [WoRMS]

Contributors
Institute of Marine Research (IMR)data owner
Olsen, Erik
Duke University; Marine Geospatial Ecology Labdataset publisher

Related datasets
Published in:
EurOBIS: European Ocean Biodiversity Information System
OBIS-SEAMAP: Spatial Ecological Analysis of Megavertebrate Populations

Publication
Based on this dataset
Olsen, E. et al. (2009). First satellite-tracked long-distance movement of a Sei whale (Balaenoptera borealis) in the North Atlantic. Aquat. Mamm. 35(3): 313-318. http://dx.doi.org/10.1578/AM.35.3.2009.313


Dataset status: Completed
Data type: Data
Release date: 2021-04-23
Metadatarecord created: 2013-06-26
Information last updated: 2023-04-20
All data in the Integrated Marine Information System (IMIS) is subject to the VLIZ privacy policy