Protection of ecologically important sites from extractive use is a valuable conservation tool. In marine environments, especially those that are remote and difficult to study like the Southern Ocean, these efforts are hampered by lack of data on how species are using marine habitats. Telemetry has emerged in the past several decades as an important method for collecting data on the movements of animals without relying on direct observations.

Using satellite telemetry data from the publicly available Retrospective Analysis of Antarctic Tracking Database, we used kernel density estimation to identify important core-use areas for 14 seabird and pinniped species. For each location where our analyses indicated that the tracks from the study population were highly representative of the population overall, we delineated borders around the areas of highest density of use. Then, using population estimates derived from the literature and from consultations with species experts, we estimated the number of mature individuals using each site.

The Key Biodiversity Area (KBA) framework designates Criteria for assessing the importance of a site for the persistence of the global population of the relevant species. These Criteria are matched with guidelines for setting thresholds according to the percentage of the global population using a site, against which sites can be compared.

We assessed 51 high-use sites for 14 species against relevant KBA Criteria. 30 sites for 13 species met conditions for at least one Criterion. Our results are from this work are published in Conservation Biology. We are currently working with the KBA Committee to finalize the site boundaries in accordance with their feedback. Once boundaries are finalized we will formally submit these sites for inclusion in the KBA database, where they will be publicly accessible. One site (for Antarctic petrels during the incubation phase of the breeding season) has been included in the Phase 2 Weddell Sea Marine Protected Area proposal to the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR).

Understanding environmental drivers of spatial distributions of highly mobile species, such as black-browed albatross, is vital for expanding our mechanistic understanding of habitat use and for predicting how future climate change might impact distributions. This also has implications for how detrimental these changes might be – especially for breeding seabirds which despite overall high mobility are much more geographically constrained during the breeding season. During breeding, birds likely have less ability to shift foraging locations to accommodate environmental changes, or may be forced to do so at a cost to breeding success.

Black-browed albatross breeding at Kerguelen have demonstrated variability in foraging trip durations and breeding success in periods of higher environmental variability. They have also shown interannual variation in the location of core foraging areas on the Kerguelen shelf and shelf edge. However, fine-scale foraging habitat selection modeling has not been conducted for this population. Additionally, the influence of a more extensive suite of environmental drivers on foraging behavioral metrics has not been conducted.

This study (in progress) uses resource selection functions to model environmental drivers of foraging habitat selection. This work is part of a larger National Science Foundation (NSF) projected funded at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and University of Colorado Boulder with support and collaboration from researchers at the Centre d’Etudes Biologiques de Chizé, the University of Liverpool, and Fisheries and Oceans Canada. The primary objectives of this project are to examine the eco-evolutionary mechanisms for modifying foraging behavior that may compensate for the impact of climate change for two species of albatross: the wandering albatross (Diomedea exulans) and the black-browed albatross (Thalassarche melanophris).

Incidental mortality (bycatch) is driving population declines of seabirds globally. For wandering albatross populations in the Southern Ocean, current fisheries threats stem primarily from longline operations, and to lower extents from trawl fisheries. Despite the existence of mitigation methods including night setting, bird-scaring (tori or streamer) lines and heavier line weighting, uptake by fisheries has been variable. Bycatch rates remain high in tuna fisheries in the high seas that are managed by regional fisheries management organizations. This is compounded by illegal, unregulated, and unreported (IUU) fishing vessels.

In order to understand what type and scale of interventions are necessary to reverse seabird population declines, this project uses demographic models to simulate a range of bycatch mitigation scenarios for wandering albatross breeding on Bird Island in South Georgia/Islas Georgias del Sur, while incorporating estimates and uncertainty of IUU. Testing management scenarios through simulations can provide decision-makers with realistic predictions on what interventions are most vital in order to meet conservation objectives.

In this (in progress) study, we aim to understand the potential of management within regulated fisheries to reverse population declines for this population, given the compounding threat of bycatch in IUU operations which exist outside the capacity of typical fisheries management interventions to address.

As marine protected areas expand globally, filling data gaps regarding the spatial ecology of marine species has become increasingly important. Acoustic telemetry aims to provide this vital information through generating datasets that can be used to reveal complex movement patterns.

As part of a multi-institution collaboration (US National Park Service, US Geological Survey, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, The Nature Conservancy) funded by Puerto Rico Sea Grant, this project collected broad‐scale movement and habitat use information for great barracuda, yellowtail snapper, mutton snapper, horse-eyed jacks, Caribbean reef sharks, nurse sharks, lemon sharks, tiger sharks, and green sea turtles. Individuals from these species were tagged over the course of several years within an array of 78 stationary acoustic receivers deployed in Buck Island Reef National Monument, a marine protected area located northeast of St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. An additional 25 receivers were nested within the larger array as a VEMCO Positioning System.

These nested arrays have been used to study habitat use, movement and connectivity between nearshore habitats, and interspecies interactions. Results from this study have increased our understanding of the ecology of these species, and ecosystems, as well as contributing to the development of best practices recommendations for analyzing data from passive acoustic telemetry arrays.

Though widely studied on nesting beaches, at-sea studies on distributions and densities of sea turtles are rare. Logistical complications with this type of work arise from the challenges inherent in studying any highly migratory marine species. However, the lack of in-water assessments biases our understanding of sea turtle distributions and habitat use to areas used for breeding, which are often completely separate from foraging locations.

This study utilized 13 years of in-water survey data of green and hawksbill sea turtles from NOAA’s Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center for 53 islands, atolls, and reefs throughout the U.S. Pacific. These data are the first comprehensive in-water surveys for the region, and for many sites the first in-water sea turtle surveys ever conducted. To summarize population trends across the U.S. Pacific and assess the distributions of each species, we illustrated demographic patterns among species and islands and quantified density at region, island and yearly scales. Using the density values, we compared between species, locations, and across time, identified regions of high and low density, and quantified yearly population growth rates. We also examined potential environmental and anthropogenic drivers of these population trends by modeling the influence of sea surface temperature (SST), productivity, habitat area, and human impacts on observed variation in turtle density.

In collaboration with fisheries researchers at NOAA, Gulf of Maine Research Institute, and the University of Massachusetts, this study analyzed the influence of sea surface temperature in driving distributional shifts of Western Atlantic bluefin tuna. We found that the population is shifting north and east, with local sea surface temperature as the main driver of this change. Increasing the understanding of how climate change is impacting species shifts is important to consider in future stock assessments and catch allocations.

Atlantic cod are a historically important fishery species in New England, once dominating the groundfish fisheries. However, the population crashed in the 1990s, and remains overfished despite efforts at recovery. The groundfish fisheries catch multiple species, and therefore the limits on cod catch also limit harvest of other species that are not overfished.

Despite spatial overlap that gives the appearance of a single stock, Atlantic cod spawn asynchronously, with some populations spawning in the winter and some in the spring. However, current stock assessments treat them as one stock, which runs the risk of management failing to account for these distinct breeding populations which could hamper recovery.

This study tested the ability of using otolith microchemistry to differentiate between spring and winter spawners. We found it possible to distinguish accurately between these stocks. By then testing historical and contemporary otolith samples with our model, we documented shifts over time in the relative proportion of spring vs winter spawners within the fishery. Mixed stock analysis using the otolith-based we demonstrate here have the potential to allow the current stock assessment to better align with the biology of this species.