Speaker: Éadin N. O’Mahony, School of Biology, University of St. U.K.

Topic:  Seawater eDNA metabarcoding: exploring the drivers of humpback whale congregation sites in the Great Bear Sea

The humpback whales foraging in Gitga’at First Nation territory of the Great Bear Sea are known through Traditional Ecological Knowledge and marine mammal surveys to congregate in specific ‘hotspots’, which appear to be geographically and temporally stable. Here we ask what drives the congregation of these whales in these areas through a comparative study of multiple sites, using seawater environmental (e)DNA metabarcoding. Can community network analyses untangle patterns of whale habitat use?