MARINE MAMMALS COURSE IN HÚSAVÍK
This past week, the University of Iceland´s marine mammals course held its annual student presentations. For the week prior, the students joined Gentle Giants on several whale watching trips while learning about four research methods used to study whales: photo-identification, boat based tracking, behaviour, and acoustics. There were so many whales in the bay, making it the perfect opportunity to learn lots and collect a lot data! After learning the techniques, they joined several more trips to practice collecting their own data and working on a project to present. Four very interesting presentations were given at the end of the course, about acoustic disturbances in the bay (from boats, dredging, and the construction of a tunnel), fluking frequency of humpback whales during different activities, breathing rates of humpback whales during different activities, and the response of humpback whales to whale watching boats.
Gentle Giants was happy to have the students on board, and to participate in important education and research on all the amazing whales visiting us here in the bay!
-Charla
Photos: Charla Basran
