Marine Mammal Research at Aarhus University, Ecoscience
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marinemammalsau.bsky.social
Marine Mammal Research at Aarhus University, Ecoscience
@marinemammalsau.bsky.social
570 followers 930 following 50 posts
Tracking movement, health & populations 🐋🐬🐻‍❄️

Our research covers aerial surveys, telemetry, bioacoustics, contaminant research & more, to better understand & protect marine life 🔬#science #dkgreen #onehealth
📍🇩🇰
Posts Replies Media Videos
marinemammalsau.bsky.social
At Science Week, Greenland 🌏🇬🇱

7 years of aerial survey data reveal abundance and habitat selection of the genetically distinct Kangia ringed seal, uniquely adapted to the UNESCO-listed Ilulissat Icefjord🦭🌱🌐🧬

Rikke presented research, with Aqqalu Rosing-Asvid (Pinngortitaleriffik) @GINR

🔗s in 📷
Rikke Guldborg Hansen presented “Sea-ice habitat association of a small ringed seal population”, co-authored by Aqqalu-Rosing Asvid from Pinngortitaleriffik (The Greenland Institute of Natural Resources). The study presented aerial survey data of abundance and habitat selection from two surveys (2018 and 2025) for the genetically distinct Kangia ringed seal, uniquely adapted to the environment found in the UNESCO-listed Ilulissat Icefjord (Kangia in Greenlandic). Observers, photographer: Emile Holba Seal: Aqqalu-Rosing Asvid Greenland Science Week Conference https://www.scienceweek.gl/kopi-af-abstract-submission
November 20, 2025 at 10:36 AM
marinemammalsau.bsky.social
🔊 New volume covering oceanic dolphin species

Ridgway & Harrison’s Handbook of Marine Mammals: An expert-written review & fantastic resource for anyone working with/ fascinated by marine mammals 🌊🐬

Our Anders Galatius has contributed the chapters on white-beaked & Atlantic white-sided dolphins 🧪🌏
November 19, 2025 at 12:21 PM
marinemammalsau.bsky.social
Keynote speaker Fredrik Christiansen presented impressive work on drones for non-invasive monitoring and calculating bioenergetics of whales around the globe 🐋🌍 🌱

Mia Kronborg, also from Marine Mammal Research @au.dk presented upcoming open-source database for harmonising C-POD data, VALKYRIE 🐬 🌐 🧪
October 10, 2025 at 9:15 AM
marinemammalsau.bsky.social
This week, Sweden had their first marine mammal research symposium, hosted by Johanne Stedt at #LundUniveristy

This brought discussion for further scientific meetings, presentations of new #MarineMammalResearch and collaborations between the Scandinavian countries.

🐋🌍 🌱🐬 🌐 🧪
October 10, 2025 at 9:15 AM
marinemammalsau.bsky.social
AU and NIRAS are monitoring the critically endangered Baltic harbour porpoise through the international project SAMBAH II 🌐🐬

Since last week, all equipment deployed in summer 2024 to log echolocation clicks from porpoises has been safely retrieved!

📷 captions for more details
sambah.org 🧪
'Crew on Skoven 2 hauling in scientific equipment after months at sea' Static acoustic recorders (anchored to the seabed) listen for porpoise echolocation clicks. Very short, high-frequency sounds (around 130 kHz) the animals use for navigation and hunting. 'Line Khyn from NIRAS and Poul Boel Jørgensen from Aarhus University, Department of Ecoscience' Project is shared equally by Aarhus University & NIRAS. Together with partners across the Baltic: This is a large, international project (involving Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Germany, and others) focused on monitoring the critically endangered Baltic Proper harbour porpoise population. It is funded by the Aage V. Jensen Charity Foundation and the Danish Env. protection agency. 'Poul and Line holding CTD' CTD (Conductivity, Temperature, Depth) casts are often made alongside acoustic deployments so researchers can link porpoise presence with environmental conditions. 'Skoven 2 cruising the Baltic sea'
September 25, 2025 at 2:16 PM
marinemammalsau.bsky.social
Our recent study in the #MarineEcologyProgressSeries
highlights how body size, condition, and human impacts shape the survival of right whales & why they are so vulnerable to prey limitation and disturbance 🐋

🔗 in thread

#Conservation #WhaleResearch #RightWhales #OceanHealth #MarineScience 🌐🌏🧪🌱
📸 Southern right whale: Fredrik Christiansen, Aarhus University 📸 North Atlantic right whale: Center for Coastal Studies, taken under NOAA permit #24359 👉 Link to paper: https://www.int-res.com/abstracts/meps/v768/meps14914
September 8, 2025 at 8:04 AM
marinemammalsau.bsky.social
Our Rikke on fieldwork in Maniitsoq, Greenland 🇬🇱
Collecting samples to study #genetics, #feedingecology, #reproduction, and the presence of pharmaceuticals & other
#persistentchemicals in harbour porpoises.

See photo captions and link for project details 🐬🌐

veluxfonden.dk/en/projekt/p... 🌱🌏
Rikke Guldborg Hansen is a senior advisor working from the marine mammal research team at AU. She is working on this project in collaboration with RUC and the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources. Rikke has a focus on Arctic marine mammals and the effects of anthropogenic and climatic changes. She is leading monitoring programmes and bridging gaps between scientific and local knowledge with respectful communication and public outreach. At AU she is advising for marine mammals in Danish waters. This includes work with Novana and the different advisory groups for marine mammals under Helcom, Ospar and Ices.  Photo taken by Rikke in Maniitsoq, August 2025
August 29, 2025 at 10:39 AM
marinemammalsau.bsky.social
Watch a short clip of the retrieval of a DST tag from the sea at Fanø
July 22, 2025 at 1:34 PM
marinemammalsau.bsky.social
We are underway with the retrieval of detached data storage tags in the #WaddenSea 🇩🇰🦭

See photo captions and previous posts on our page for the building of retrievable tags and their deployment
@au.dk

#Science #biomonotoring #research #marineecology #marinemammalreasearch 🌐
Deployment of satellite tags on animals has the advantage of the electronics doing the datasampling. Positions, dive depths and underwater 3D movements can be collected for days, weeks and even months. In some cases larger data amounts are being sampled, and the amount of data is too large to transmit to a satellite. Instead, the floating tags need to be recovered after detaching from the animal. Retrieving tags, unless they are being found by people on the beach, can be quite time-consuming. However, with the help from radio transmitters the access to important research data is a great reward for the invested time and logistics.
July 22, 2025 at 1:33 PM
marinemammalsau.bsky.social
PhD student Emilie Stepien uses satellite tags, CATS Cams and drones to observe seal reactions to shipping in the Wadden sea 🇩🇰
Watch a pregnant seal reacting to a sea eagle caught on drone video 🦅🦭

@emstepien.bsky.social 🧪🌐

#Wildlife #WaddenSea #HarbourSeal #AnimalBehaviour #MarineEcology
July 6, 2025 at 10:14 AM
marinemammalsau.bsky.social
Together with MSc student Oliver Nowak and local hunters, Fredrik Christiansen measured over 500 whales during March-June to investigate their prey consumption and condition.

Meanwhile, capturing jaw dropping wildlife footage 📷

🌐🌏🐋🧪
#marinemammology #ecology #cetaceanresearch #Arctic #MarineEcology #Research #Science
June 30, 2025 at 4:18 PM
marinemammalsau.bsky.social
Our Senior Researcher Fredrik Christiansen recently completed the third photogrammetry field season on bowhead whales in Disko Bay, Greenland. See Thread.

🌐🌏🐋🧪

@FChristiansen.bsky.social

#marinemammology #ecology #cetaceanresearch
#Arctic #MarineEcology #Research
#Science
Our Senior Researcher Fredrik Christiansen completed the third photogrammetry field season on bowhead whales in Disko Bay, Greenland. Together with MSc student Oliver Nowak and local hunters, he measured over 500 whales during March to June to investigate their prey consumption and condition.
June 30, 2025 at 4:18 PM
marinemammalsau.bsky.social
🔊 Presenting the first range-and genome-wide population genomic analysis of grey seals! 🦭🌐

3812 nuclear SNPs genotyped in 188 samples from 17 sites identified 6 distinct populations and historic bottlenecks with ongoing recovery effects 🧪🌊 @au.dk

doi.org/10.1111/mec....

#Science #marineecology
Grey seal pup photographed in Southern Denmark 2025, AU Ecoscience. Fig. Connectivity and diversity of grey seals inferred from (A) effective migration parameter (Nm) assessed with divMigrate and (B) genetic diversity estimated as the proportion of heterozygous sites per individual. The legend indicating the sampling locality region is applicable to both subplots. The arrow weight legend for Nm indicates the relative strength of effective migration. Black arrows indicate effective migration between different regions while effective migration within a region is coloured according to the region.
June 26, 2025 at 4:47 PM
marinemammalsau.bsky.social
Rune Dietz presented results on PFAS in Danish wildlife at #Naturmødet 2025, together with Neils Kanstrup.
Dangerously high levels found in birds especially around Harboøre Tange and Agger Tange #Science #Research #MarineEcology #dkgreen
🧪🌐🐋

Recent report (Danish):
dce.au.dk/fileadmin/dc...
A study of 188 birds from six huntable species collected across 14 locations in Denmark during autumn and winter 2023–2024 found significantly elevated levels of PFAS—especially PFOS and Σ4PFAS—in teal, mallard, and greylag goose from Harboøre Tange and Agger Tange, with 94% of birds from Harboøre Tange exceeding EU safety limits for human consumption. These findings support the Danish authorities’ decision to end hunting leases and advise against consuming game from these areas due to serious health risks.
May 25, 2025 at 12:48 PM
marinemammalsau.bsky.social
Where should we build offshore wind farms for minimimal impacts on marine species? Discussed by Jacob Nabe-Nielsen from @au.dk on #Naturmødet in Hirtshals. He presented results from the Screening project that will facilitate a sustainable green transition in Denmark #dkgreen #Marineecology 🧪 🌐 🐋
Joint presentation by Jacob Nabe-Nielsen from Aarhus University (left) and Jonas Nyfeldt-Nüchel from NIRAS (right). The sensitivity mapping of Danish waters included marine mammals, birds, bats, and benthic species. Results are published in a series of reports available from the Danish Energy Authority home page or from https://dce.au.dk/en
May 25, 2025 at 12:27 PM
marinemammalsau.bsky.social
Our PostDoc Marina Gil has just returned from Greenland 🇬🇱 Together with local hunters, she collected samples for the AMAP CORE program - monitoring pollution in Greenland biota since 1994. It holds some of the longest time series data for Arctic wildlife 🐻‍❄️🐋

More in the photo captions 🧪
www.amap.no
Marina started with us in January to work primarily on the WhaleAdapt project with Rune Dietz, Christian Sonne and Jens Søndergaard. WhaleAdapt is a 4 year program led by McGill University, Canada and is an international collaboration with Denmark, the US, St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The project investigates effects of climate change on cetaceans and whaling communities in the North Atlantic. 'The goal is to help communities across the affected countries to make sustainable, healthy and socio economically viable adaptations to shifting marine resources.' - Melissa McKinney, project lead. Marina is originally from Spain and lived much of her Scientific career in the Canary Islands working closely with cetaceans. She has also been to Antarctica during her recent postdoc at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) in Bremerhaven, Germany. - Picture taken from Qeqertarsuaq, Greenland A successful trip for Marina where she collected an array of tissue samples and measurements from 17 subsistence hunted ringed seals in Qeqertarsuaq, she also fished for sculpins as in this picture.
May 10, 2025 at 7:36 PM
marinemammalsau.bsky.social
Developing and testing the models demands a wealth of diverse data and a very dedicated team!

From tagging projects to stranding records, we gather critical information on animal movement, energetics, and population structure to inform and refine these models 🐬
#marinemammalresearch @au.dk
@caragallagher.bsky.social is a part of the DEPONs modeling team at AU Ecoscience marine mammal research. Optimising models and how to use them to protect wildlife from under water noise disturbances.
April 29, 2025 at 3:00 PM
marinemammalsau.bsky.social
Our researchers use a variety of models, including DEPONS (depons.eu), which simulates the effects of noise disturbance on harbor porpoises.

By simulating how noise impacts their movement and foraging success, DEPONS can assess the impacts of offshore wind farm construction and ship traffic. 🛥️🐬
April 29, 2025 at 3:00 PM
marinemammalsau.bsky.social
Noise pollution isn’t just an inconvenience! 🔉🐬
it can disturb entire marine ecosystems.

Understanding how noise disturbance affects wildlife populations requires powerful models, lots of data and a dedicated team.

See the thread for what is going on in AU Ecoscience #marinemammalresearch 🌊
April 29, 2025 at 3:00 PM
marinemammalsau.bsky.social
A group of researchers will stay in the area through May to monitor the reactions of the seals to tourism activities using drones and to recover the instruments that will detach from the seals in the coming weeks.

Read photo captions for more details 🧪
#Marinemammalresearch
Drone image of the catch net and researchers tagging 2 seals on the shore, by Emilie Stepien (PhD student at AU Ecoscience). Picture of one of the boats of AU marine mammal researchers plus researchers from Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia who were invited to join this first field campaign. Harbour seal equipt with satellite GPS tag (head) and CATs cam (back). This will detach in the next few weeks and provide video footage capturing new insights on harbour seal feeding behaviours. The red floatation device includes a small satellite recovery tag allowing retrieval of the camera instrument. Wildlife Computers mote set up on Langli Island. The mote is a ground-based listening station which continually logs telemetry data from satellite tags on animals within reception range, improving the amount and quality of data we get from the tags.
April 24, 2025 at 11:54 AM
marinemammalsau.bsky.social
CATS Cams successfully deployed!
26 harbour seals in the Danish Wadden Sea have just been tagged to study the impact of tourism 🦭
This included deployment of 10 CATS Cams and Daily Diary loggers in a new comparative study on foraging ecology between Danish harbour seals and Australian fur seals🧪
April 24, 2025 at 11:54 AM
marinemammalsau.bsky.social
This week, our researchers are preparing for fieldwork in Sarasota Bay, Florida, to collect acoustic data on bottlenose dolphins 🐬. While prepping the equipment, students from our Acoustic Ecology Lab took part in DTAGs tracking training. They were happy to see how their data is collected! 🔊🌊
Part of the members of the Acoustic Ecology Lab team from the Institute of Ecoscience - Aarhus University. Master students took part in a search for a hidden DTAg at the Risø campus using VHF antennas. Field work equipment. DTAg ready to go!!
April 9, 2025 at 2:32 PM
marinemammalsau.bsky.social
Also this week @marinemammalsau:
We had Arctic First Aid and STCW training ⛑️🚢❄️. It’s a requirement for us at ECOS @au.dk to be certified and up to date when heading out on fieldwork in the Arctic or other regions! #Safety #Fieldwork #MarineResearch
March 27, 2025 at 1:52 PM
marinemammalsau.bsky.social
Jonas & Rune building tags for next week’s seal tagging trip to the Danish Wadden Sea! 🦭 Using CATSCAM & behavioural tags to capture hunting in action! 🎥🐟 How do harbour seals react to tourist disturbances? + a comparative study of foraging behaviour to Australian fur seals with @DeakinUniversity.
@Jonas Teilmann, Professor at Institute for Ecoscience - Marine mammal research 2, Aarhus University @Rune Dietz, Professor at Institute of Ecoscience, marine mammal research, Aarhus University
March 27, 2025 at 1:19 PM
marinemammalsau.bsky.social
The grey seal is back in Denmark after nearly a century!🦭
'To inform management of the budding Danish breeding population, we are telemetry tagging and genetically profiling a sample of the few pups born in 🇩🇰 to get data on their relatedness, movements and habitat use.´- Anders Galatius
📷 Last week
AU team📍 Rødsand 07.03.2025 - Rikke Guldborg Hansen, Anders Galatius, Rune Dietz, Jonas Teilmann, Marina Arregui Gil, Tove Petersson
March 21, 2025 at 3:04 PM