Marine Biostatistics

WEST is an industry-leading environmental and statistical consulting firm with extensive experience working with marine mammals. WEST has over 22 peer-reviewed publications regarding marine mammal projects, mostly in Northern climates in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas.

These studies include population and demographic modeling of polar bears, habitat and global warming impact assessment for polar bears, assessment of anthropogenic sound impacts on bowhead whales, population and habitat estimation for walrus, impact assessment of US Navy rocket launches on seals and sea lions, habitat estimation of gray whales in Russian controlled waters, and others.

The field methods employed during these studies involved live capture, radio telemetry, and remote video capture (both land-based and from unmanned aerial vehicles). The statistical techniques employed during these studies included capture-recapture analysis, resource selection analysis, simulation of study design to assess precision, line-transect analyses, acoustic analyses, and assistance with study design.

Publications

Effects of Tones Associated with Drilling Activities on Bowhead Whale Calling Rates
S. B. Blackwell, C. S. Nations, A. M. Thode, Mandy E. Kauffman, A. S. Conrad, R. G. Norman, and K. H. Kim
2017

Density, Abundance, Survival, and Ranging Patterns of Common Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops Truncatus) in Mississippi Sound Following the Deepwater Horizon Oil
K. D. Mullin, T. L. McDonald, R. S Wells, B. C. Balmer, T. Speakman, C. Sinclair, E. S. Zolman, Fawn Hornsby, S. M. McBride, K. A. Wilkinson, and L. H. Schwake
2017

Density and Exposure of Surface-Pelagic Juvenile Sea Turtles to Deepwater Horizon Oil
T. L. McDonald, B. A. Schroeder, B. A. Stacy, B. P. Wallace, Leigh Ann Starcevich, J. Gorham, M. C. Tumlin, D. Cacela, M. Rissing, D. B. McLamb, E. Ruder, B. E. Witherington
2017

Responses of Pinnipeds to Navy Missile Launches at San Nicolas Island, California
M. Holst, C. R. Green, Jr., W. J. Richardson, T. L. McDonald, Kimberly Bay, S. J. Schwartz, and G. Smith
2015

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