Marine Megafauna Ecology

This course provides theoretical and practical knowledge and skills needed to undertake research and monitoring of marine megafauna species of conservation concern. Working with cetaceans and sea turtles as keystone species, all aspects of the process are covered, including the knowledge on their biology, ecology and threats, design of monitoring protocols and advanced methodologies, data handling and analysis, and interpretation of results and communication. Students gain experience in boat-based data collection (GPS tracking, photo-identification, tissue collection, theodolite, aerial surveys, UAVs, tagging), but also on independent lab work where students, under supervision, learn basic and advanced data handling and analysis techniques and software (MS Excel, R, GIS, mark-recapture, SOCPROG).