About Us
Since 1988, the Whitehead Lab at Dalhousie University has studied northern bottlenose whales in the Gully, a deep submarine canyon off Nova Scotia and one of the first Marine Protected Areas in Canada. This long-term research program has built one of the most detailed records of an endangered beaked whale population anywhere in the world, combining visual surveys, photo-identification, acoustics, genetics, and field observations.
Our work has helped inform the conservation and management of the Gully Marine Protected Area and the endangered Scotian Shelf population of northern bottlenose whales. Since 2015 we have expanded this research across the species’ Canadian range, from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland to the Davis Strait, Baffin Bay, and the Labrador Sea.
Together with collaborators across the Arctic and North Atlantic, we are investigating how northern bottlenose whale populations are connected, how their numbers and distributions are changing, and how new information on diet, life history, and habitat use can support conservation and management in a changing ocean.
Our work has helped inform the conservation and management of the Gully Marine Protected Area and the endangered Scotian Shelf population of northern bottlenose whales. Since 2015 we have expanded this research across the species’ Canadian range, from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland to the Davis Strait, Baffin Bay, and the Labrador Sea.
Together with collaborators across the Arctic and North Atlantic, we are investigating how northern bottlenose whale populations are connected, how their numbers and distributions are changing, and how new information on diet, life history, and habitat use can support conservation and management in a changing ocean.
