Azorean whale watching: an opportunistic platform to study cetaceans in the wild
CCMAR SEMINARS
21st February 2018, at 1:30 pm
Anf. C (CP)
Azorean whale watching: an opportunistic platform to study cetaceans in the wild
Rui Peres dos Santos
(Futurismo Azores Adventures)
Abstract
Since almost 30 years, the activity of whale watching have been an important part of the Azores economy, but only few research have been developed in the area. With a total of 27 species described in the Azorean waters, and the time spend at sea by the whale watching companies, these ones can be used as an opportunistic platform to develop cetacean studies. It will be presented three different studies developed on Azores whale watching. Analysis on four rare encounters on anomalously white Atlantic spotted dolphins, from the years 1997 to 2013. It will also be discussed the description of false killer whales in the area, main behaviours, as well as its relationship with other cetacean species. In a larger Atlantic scale, it will be presented the Northwest Atlantic (NWA) and Northeast Atlantic (NEA) blue whale catalogues and the several matches in the different areas.
CV
Rui Peres dos Santos, graduated in Marine Biology by the University of the Algarve in 2006. Also, in the Algarve, he did is Master thesis “The effect of Warfarin in bone development in zebrafish (Danio rerio) larvae” at the Evolution, Development and Gene Expression (EDGE) research group, in 2009. From 2009 till 2011 he had work as a research assistant on EDGE group, and as a Nature guide in the company Formosamar in the Natural Park of Ria Formosa. Since the summer of 2011 he moved to the Azores developing is activity as Marine biologist on whale watching trips and photo-id project manager. His work has been developed in several collaborations mostly with the Mingan Island Cetacean Study (MICS).
