Marine Mammal Monitoring

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS

Communication of program results in scientific forums and to the public at large

Presentation of 3 student thesis projects in the annual meeting of the Mexican Society for Marine Mastozoology (SOMEMMA)

Training and mentorship for university students and community members

Hector Perez-Puig and Elise Maynard photographing a Blue Whale for the photo-ID catalog

The Marine Mammal Program (MMP) has conducted continuous monitoring for the past 12 years. This season we invested significant energy in communicating the results of our work, and in strengthening interinstitutional collaborations. Through these efforts, the Center is becoming increasingly recognized as a reference point for cetacean research and conservation in the Eastern Midriff Region of the Sonoran coast, with a specific focus on the ecology and special-temporal distribution of cetaceans. The MMP continued to mentor university students, contributing to their academic and profession development, while simultaneously gaining valuable detailed data analysis for the marine mammal projects conducted by the Center. Moving forward we will continue working with these students to publish the results in scientific journals.

Education and Training

• Mentorship of 4 undergraduate and masters students • 2 community training workshops and 2 webinars sharing program results

Monitoring

• 78 sightings of 7 species (4 whale species and 3 dolphin species) in 23 field outings this season • 1,603 sightings total recorded over 12 years • 18 sightings of 27 individual Blue Whales, representing more than a 100% increase in sightings from previous seasons • 35 acoustic recordings (totaling 95 minutes) of 3 cetacean species in 10 sightings

Blue Whale (Balaenoptera musculus) near Tiburon Island

Monitoring of dolphins in the Infiernillo Canal

Collaborations

• Preparation of 4 publication manuscripts based on Center data, prepared in collaboration with 1 NGO and 3 academic institutions

• Co-direction and mentorship of masters students from the Center for Scientific Research and Higher Education of Ensenada (CICESE): 2 concluding this season and 2 more recruited to begin next season • Active participation as the northern representative and project reviewer for SOMEMMA

Information Sharing

• Presentation of 3 projects at the annual SOMEMMA conference, given in collaboration with students and researchers from the region • Sharing of information about cetaceans in 1 local newspaper and on the University of Guanajuato radio

Long-beak common dolphins (Delphinus delphis bairdii)

Impact: Long-term monitoring, information sharing and capacity building efforts produce increasingly detailed information about critical cetacean habitat in the region which can be used to inform conservation and management decisions.