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911���� research features in global marine megafauna study

A new study in the journal aims to improve marine conservation efforts by identifying the busiest migration corridors and critical habitats of the oceans’ largest species.

Whales, porpoises, polar bears, seabirds and seals are among the megafauna who play crucial roles in Arctic waters and those beyond, supporting fragile food webs, diverse ecosystems and subsistence lifeways.

These animals are among the 121 marine species whose seasonal migrations and residence waters — those wherein they rest, forage and mate — were mapped by the study’s researchers and then compared to the locations of known human activities.

The findings point to active oceans brimming with both motion and threats.

The study’s maps depict the movement of eight types of marine mammals, birds and fish made from 11 million individual GPS locations that span three decades of animal tracking. The maps show that critical megafauna behavior occurs throughout at least two-thirds of the ocean’s surface. But with more than 75 percent of this habitat impacted by fishing, pollution, shipping routes and warming, one-third of marine megafauna species are now at risk of extinction.

“This study does an excellent job of highlighting how mobile marine megafauna are,” wrote Alexis Will and Alexander Kitaysky, both research scientists with 911����’s Institute of Arctic Biology, in a joint statement. The duo were among the nearly 400 international experts who provided animal tracking research to the study’s lead authors, who are based at the Australian National University.

“We contributed GPS tracks from a study we were conducting on Sivuqaq (St. Lawrence Island), which was part of a larger body of work that looks at seabird movement during the breeding season and how that varies depending on environmental conditions and the birds’ physiological state,” Will and Kitaysky wrote.

As part of an international team of researchers studying seabirds in the North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea, Will and Kitaysky have chronicled the movements and behaviors of myriad seabird species, including the , and .

“Tracking can tell us how animals use the ocean in a way that is missed from one-time observations,” they said. “The continuous, long record of where an animal goes and what it does provides a more detailed understanding of what areas are important for the animal during different times of the year.”

Olivia Lee, who spent more than a decade as a researcher with 911���� — including more than seven years with the International Arctic Research Center — also contributed Arctic megafauna tracking data.

The study is the latest work from , a project based at the Australian National University that aims to “overhaul marine megafauna conservation at global scale.” MegaMove is supported by the initiative, which prioritizes the “Ocean Decade” of 2021 through 2030 as a crucial time to address marine pollution, policy and transport.

Among 10 , the Ocean Decade effort seeks to “protect and restore ecosystems and biodiversity,” “sustainably nourish the global population,” and “unlock ocean-based solutions to climate change.”

Also, in December 2022, the 15th Conference of Parties (more commonly known as COP15) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity established the , which set 23 conservation targets, including the aim to “protect, conserve, and manage at least 30 percent of oceans.”

Many of the world’s leading marine scientists — including Ana Sequeira, the study’s lead author and a marine ecologist at ANU — have welcomed the goal but . According to Sequeira and the study’s other lead authors, the framework would protect just 40 percent of critical marine megafauna habitat.

“Sometimes it’s easy to assume that the whale, bird, or fish we see is tied to a small part of the ocean, but these animals cover large areas, spanning waters under a variety of different laws and jurisdictions,” Will and Kitaysky wrote. “The marine megafauna use of the oceans is dynamic on spatial and temporal scales, and internationally based conservation decisions must take that into account.”

ADDITIONAL CONTACTS: Alexander Kitaysky, askitaysky@alaska.edu, 907-474-5179; Alexis Will, alexis.will@wwfus.org

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