{"id":876416,"date":"2026-04-06T19:19:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T19:19:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/876416\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T19:19:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T19:19:22","slug":"sei-whales-are-sharing-their-spring-habitat-with-usas-busiest-port","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/876416\/","title":{"rendered":"Sei whales are sharing their spring habitat with USA’s busiest port"},"content":{"rendered":"

Endangered sei whales are regularly using the waters of the New York Bight each spring, an exciting new study has found, carrying significant implications for the management of one of the busiest and most industrially active stretches of coastline in the United States.<\/p>\n

Led by scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), the research used acoustic monitoring technology to track the presence and vocal behaviour of sei whales in the waters off New York and New Jersey between 2017 and 2020.<\/p>\n

What the data revealed was not the occasional, incidental passage of a wandering individual, but a consistent, structured seasonal pattern \u2013 the hallmark of a species that knows exactly where it is going, and when.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first detailed analysis of daily and seasonal acoustic patterns for sei whales in the New York Bight,\u201d said Maria Papadopoulos, lead author of the study with WCS and graduate researcher at Columbia University. \u201cWe found that 95% of sei whale vocalisations were detected between March and May, with activity peaking in the late spring, when temperatures are between 41\u00b0 and 48\u00b0 Fahrenheit. This highlights a narrow environmental window when the whales are most likely to be present, potentially linked to prey availability.\u201d<\/p>\n

The findings are published under the title Seasonal and Diel Acoustic Activity of Sei Whales (Balaenoptera borealis) in the New York Bight.<\/p>\n

The third largest whale species on the planet after blue and fin whales, adult sei whales average 47 feet in length and weigh around 44,000 pounds \u2013 roughly the equivalent of four African elephants. They produce loud, low-frequency calls that drop in pitch, typically arriving in pairs or triplets. Yet despite their size and their voices, they remain one of the least-studied large whales in the North Atlantic, listed as Endangered under both U.S. and international law, and rarely encountered at sea.<\/p>\n

That elusiveness is what makes the acoustic record so valuable. Rather than waiting for a sei whale to surface within sight of a research vessel, the WHOI-developed monitoring systems listen continuously \u2013 and, as it turns out, there is a great deal to hear.<\/p>\n

The study also identified a clear daily pattern in sei whale calling behaviour, with vocalisations occurring significantly more often during daylight hours. Researchers believe this reflects reduced calling at night, when the whales are thought to be feeding.<\/p>\n

It is a finding with direct conservation relevance: the hours when sei whales are most vocal are also the hours when vessel traffic in the New York Bight is at its most intense \u2013 and when underwater noise is most likely to disrupt communication between animals.<\/p>\n

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