2015
Golfo de Penas mass mortality
At least 343 sei whales found dead across the gulf and adjacent fjords — the largest single baleen whale mortality event on record. Harmful algal bloom implicated; the full mechanism remains contested.
Balaenoptera borealis · Fiordos Australes, Chile
A decade of continuous fieldwork in the Patagonian channels: passive acoustic monitoring, photo-identification, and forensic investigation of the largest recorded mass mortality of baleen whales anywhere in the world.
The work
The channels behind Wellington Island are among the least accessible marine environments on earth. There is no road, no harbour of consequence, and weather that closes the fjords for weeks. What there is, is sei whales — a species listed as Endangered globally, and one whose southern-hemisphere ecology remains substantially undescribed.
Greg and Keri Landreth have worked these waters for over a decade from two ocean-going sailing vessels. The programme combines moored and towed hydrophone deployments, photo-identification catalogues, prey-field sampling, and necropsy work on stranded animals — a dataset assembled almost entirely outside institutional funding cycles.
Acoustic detection is now the backbone of the programme. Sei whale downsweeps in the 34–82 Hz band propagate for tens of kilometres through the fjords, allowing a small crew to monitor a coastline that would otherwise require a fleet.
Field record
At least 343 sei whales found dead across the gulf and adjacent fjords — the largest single baleen whale mortality event on record. Harmful algal bloom implicated; the full mechanism remains contested.
Subsequent clusters of carcasses recorded in the surrounding channels. Remote locations and delayed discovery have limited the tissue sampling possible, making a resident survey presence critical.
Long-duration hydrophone deployments begin, producing the first continuous record of sei whale presence, seasonality, and calling behaviour in the Chilean fjord system.
Machine-assisted detection of downsweep calls across multi-year archives, allowing seasonal occupancy to be mapped against oceanographic and bloom conditions.
Platforms
Steel ketch · high-latitude expedition
A vessel with a long record in polar and sub-polar waters. Northanger has carried scientific parties to some of the most demanding coastlines in both hemispheres, and remains the programme's heavy-weather platform.
Sailing research vessel · Puerto Edén, Chile
Currently based in Puerto Edén, Saoirse is the working platform for hydrophone deployment and recovery, transect work, and rapid response to reported strandings in the surrounding channels.
Continuation of the programme
Eleven years of continuous presence in the Patagonian fjords cannot be reconstructed retrospectively. If the vessels stop, the time series stops — and a mortality event on the scale of 2015 could occur again without anyone on the water to document it.
We are seeking a benefactor, foundation, or institutional partner willing to underwrite the programme on a multi-year basis. Restricted and named support are both possible, as is co-authorship and data-sharing arrangement with an academic partner.
Fuel, provisioning, and crew for a full austral survey season, including two hydrophone deployment and recovery cycles.
Additional long-duration recorders to extend coverage beyond the current stations and close gaps in the fjord network.
Named, multi-year support securing the time series and enabling a formal academic partnership and publication programme.