| Summary: | The main objective of my thesis was to ascertain the spatiotemporal presence of sei whales in Atlantic Canada (Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Labrador) using passive acoustic monitoring. First, I first characterized sei whale vocalizations in Atlantic Canada (1.58 s long, 75.66 Hz to 34.22 Hz). Then, I examined whether downsweeps differed between two geographic regions in Atlantic Canada. I found downsweeps were significantly longer, and fewer doublets were recorded off Nova Scotia than Newfoundland/ Labrador. I then created and tested a tiered-detector approach, to reduce the overall time it takes to review sei whale detections. Finally, I determined the spatial and temporal occurrence of sei whales in Atlantic Canada over a two-year period. Sei whales were present year-round in Atlantic Canada and were heard mostly off-shelf, with low presence at stations <100 km offshore. Sei whales were absent from northern stations in winter, with a regional peak in October.
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