Research Projects

Research initiatives within the MRI Whale Unit are managed within a series of Research Themes, each of which comprise Research Programmes of individual Research Projects. Research on particular species may extend across Themes or Programmes

 

 

Research Projects
Theme A: Recovering Whales- The role of large baleen whales in the Southern Hemisphere Ocean Ecosystems

Programme1

Large Migratory Whale Population Abundances and Trends
Project 1 Antarctic Blue Whale Population Abundance and Trends
Project 2 Southern Right Whale Population Abundance and Trends - Cape / Namibia / Mozambique
Project 3 East and west coast Humpback Whale Abundance and Trends
Project 4

Acoustic monitoring of seasonal presence and abundance of baleen whales on the historical west coast whaling ground

Programme 2      Cetacean Trophic Ecology
Project 5

Ice – edge humpback, minke and blue whales

Project 6 West coast humpback and right whale feeding
Project 7 Southern Ocean right whales

Theme B: Building a Conservation Inventory of South Africa’s Cetacean Fauna.

Programme 3 Abundance of Key Resident Species
Project 9

Bryde’s whale abundance (possible links to the trophic ecology Programme above through stable isotope analyses)

Programme 4

Establishment of baseline biological data (using Collections and Sighting/Specimen Knowledge Base) for the development of conservation data inventories.

Project 10 Biogeography, Seasonality and Distribution Patterns of Cetacean Species
Project 11 Taxonomic, Genetic and Anatomical Studies

Theme C: African Links – Building African Marine Mammal Research Capacity

Programme 12 

West coast of southern Africa

Project 12 Establishing links between southern right whales in SA and Namibia
Project 13

Establishing links between SA west coast humpback whales and those in Namibia, Angola and Gabon.

Project 14 Establishing distribution and seasonality links of large baleen whales off Namibia and SA through autonomous acoustic recording systems.
Programme 13 The African East Coast and the Western Indian Ocean 
Project 15

Monitoring abundance and status of dugongs in Mozambique

Project 16

Establishing movement links of humpback whales between SA and Mozambique, Madagascar and the Western Indian ocean archipelago breeding grounds

Project 17

Monitoring occurrence of southern right whales in Mozambique and links between SA and Mozambique

 

Please view the menu tabs to view the different research projects individually.

 

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