Seasonal migrations of North Atlantic minke whales: novel insights from large-scale passive acoustic monitoring networks

Denise Risch, Manuel Castellote, Christopher W Clark, Genevieve E Davis, Peter J Dugan, Lynne EW Hodge, Anurag Kumar, Klaus Lucke, David K Mellinger, Sharon L Nieukirk, Cristian Marian Popescu, Christian Ramp, Andrew J Read, Aaron N Rice, Monica A Silva, Ursula Siebert, Kathleen M Stafford, Hans Verdaat, Sofie M Van Parijs

Little is known about migration patterns and seasonal distribution away from coastal summer feeding habitats of many pelagic baleen whales. Recently, large-scale passive acoustic monitoring networks have become available to explore migration patterns and identify critical habitats of these species. North Atlantic minke whales (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) perform seasonal migrations between high latitude summer feeding and low latitude winter breeding grounds. While the distribution and abundance of the species has been studied across their summer range, data on migration and winter habitat are virtually missing. Acoustic recordings, from 16 different sites from across the North Atlantic, were analyzed to examine the seasonal and geographic variation in minke whale pulse train occurrence, infer information about migration routes and timing, and to identify possible winter habitats.