Natacha Aguilar de Soto facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Natacha Aguilar de Soto
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Aguilar de Soto in 2021
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| Education | University of La Laguna |
| Known for | Cetacean research |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | University of La Laguna, University of Saint Andrews |
Natacha Aguilar de Soto is a Spanish marine biologist. She works at the University of La Laguna (ULL) in Tenerife, Canary Islands. She is a scientist and teacher there. She has also worked at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.
Natacha leads research on whales and dolphins, which are called cetaceans. Her group at ULL, called BIOECOMAC, studies marine life and how to protect it. She focuses on how deep-sea cetaceans, like beaked whales and pilot whales, dive and hunt.
Her studies on short-finned pilot whales are changing how scientists understand how marine animals find food. She also researches how whales and dolphins use sound (this is called bioacoustics). She looks at how noise in the ocean affects them. Her work helps create rules to protect these amazing animals.
Natacha Aguilar de Soto is also the president and a founder of a group called Asociación GIC. She also helped start CETAVIST, a network for spotting whales and seabirds in the Canary Islands.
Contents
Natacha's Journey in Science
Natacha Aguilar de Soto earned her doctorate degree in Biology from the University of La Laguna (ULL) in the Canary Islands. She joined the university as a student. In 2002, she started a long-term study watching Blainville's and Cuvier's beaked whales. She finished her Ph.D. work in 2006.
As part of the BIOECOMAC research group at ULL, she leads studies on cetaceans and how they use sound. Natacha managed the SOUNDMAR project from 2010 to 2013. This project was funded by the European Union. She also managed the ECOSOUND project from 2015 to 2017. This project was at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.
In 2017, Natacha became a Ramón y Cajal fellow at ULL. This is a special position for researchers.
Helping Marine Mammals
Natacha is the president and a co-founder of Asociación GIC. This group started in 2003. Its goal is to study, protect, and save marine mammals in the Canary Islands.
She also helped create CETAVIST in 2012. This is a network that involves everyday people, called citizen scientists. Volunteers on passenger ferries help by looking for whales and seabirds. Between 2012 and 2016, they completed over 1,300 surveys. This work helps scientists understand where these animals live.
Natacha Aguilar de Soto has also worked with expert groups. These groups look at how noise in the ocean affects marine life. She has helped with efforts to reduce noise pollution in places like the Canary Islands, New Zealand, and Australia.
In 2019, she was named a "Hope Spot Champion." This was part of a plan to make the Tenerife-La Gomera area a special "Hope Spot." This means it would be a larger protected area for marine life.
Discoveries About Whales and Dolphins
Natacha Aguilar de Soto's research covers many areas. She studies how deep-diving cetaceans dive and feed. She also looks at how they communicate using sound. Her work helps estimate where whales and seabirds live. She also studies how human activities, like noise pollution and ship collisions, affect the ocean.
The Canary Islands are home to at least 26 different types of cetaceans. These include several kinds of beaked whales, like Blainville's beaked whale and Cuvier's beaked whale. At least five species live there all year round. This is the only place in the North Atlantic where this happens.
Between 1985 and 2003, many beaked whales got stranded on the beaches. This often happened when naval exercises were taking place nearby. Because of this, in 2004, Spain stopped using naval sonar within 92 kilometers (about 57 miles) of the Canary Islands. This was done to protect the whales.
In 2003, Natacha started a long-term study of Blainville's and Cuvier's beaked whales. She used special tags called DTAGs. These tags stick to the whales with suction cups and eventually fall off. They record sounds and movements. This helps researchers understand how the whales behave, live in groups, and move around.
Natacha's Ph.D. research focused on the diving and sound behavior of short-finned pilot whales and Blainville's beaked whales. She also looked at how human noise and boat crashes affected them. Her research showed that pilot whales make fast, deep dives to catch large prey. Then they return to the surface to breathe and rest. This showed that these whales use a lot of energy when hunting. Her work is changing how scientists think about how marine animals dive and find food. It can also help create better rules for whale-watching and shipping.
Natacha also helped study the effects of a volcanic eruption near El Hierro Island in 2011-2012.
In 2012, Natacha co-wrote an article about how Blainville's beaked whales hide from killer whales. These whales stay completely silent when they swim up to the surface or are less than 170 meters (about 558 feet) deep. They only make sounds for echolocation (finding things with sound) and communication when they are diving deeper. This helps them avoid being found by predators.
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Natacha and other scientists also studied sperm whales in the deep waters near the Canary Islands. They estimated that about 224 sperm whales live there. They compared this data with records of whales that had been hit by ships. The study found that many sperm whales were dying from ship collisions. This could cause their population to shrink.
Because of this study, several steps were suggested to help. For example, information about avoiding whale collisions is now taught to ship captains at the ULL Nautical Engineering School.
In 2017, Natacha helped with a study on beaked whales. This study included the first-ever underwater video of living True's beaked whales. These are some of the rarest beaked whales in the world. The video was taken off the coast of the Azores by students. Natacha later confirmed that the video showed True's beaked whales.
Awards and Recognition
- 2018: Award for outstanding female researchers from the University of La Laguna.
Selected Publications
- Aguilar de Soto, N. (2006). Acoustic and diving behaviour of the short finned pilot whales and Blainville's beaked whale off the Canary Islands. Implications on the effects of man-made noise and boat collisions. Ph.D. thesis. San Cristóbal de La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna.
See also
In Spanish: Natacha Aguilar de Soto para niños
