Browsing by Author "Albuquerque, Mafalda dos Santos"
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- Sei whale feeding and transiting behaviour in the AzoresPublication . Albuquerque, Mafalda dos Santos; Vinagre, Catarina; Dionísio, GiselaSei whales (Balaenoptera borealis) of the North Atlantic were brought to near extinction by twentieth-century industrial whaling. Currently, this species is classified as Endangered, and it is one the baleen whales more poorly understood. This baleen whale uses the Azores region during their annual latitudinal migrations towards the northern areas, but little is known yet to know the importance of this region to their migration success. Therefore, the present study is a contribution to update the information about the species’ habitat use and social ecology in the Azores, including its seasonality, bathymetry, group size, population structure and behaviour, using data from 2009 to 2022. Additionally, feeding behaviour is described in detail based on the large feeding aggregation, registered from August to November of 2022, near Faial and Pico Islands. For the analysis, opportunistic data, collected during whale-watching surveys is used and photo-identification of the individuals observed in the aggregation event too. In total, four islands’ data is analysed and compared, with support of statistical tests. The results show that sei whales are changing the time of their passage in the Azores to late summer/autumn and using this area to feed and not only to pass and rest, as previous reported. The feeding aggregation gives a new idea about the importance of the Azores to Balaenoptera borealis, as it might be becoming an important feeding ground during its migration to northern areas. With this new insight on the species ecology, local conservation measures are revised and proposed, so the navigation of vessels and whale-watching in the feeding zones do not have major impacts on the behaviour and feeding of the animals.