Population structure of South Pacific humpback whales and the origin of the eastern Polynesian breeding grounds

2007 ◽  
Vol 330 ◽  
pp. 257-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
C Olavarría ◽  
CS Baker ◽  
C Garrigue ◽  
M Poole ◽  
N Hauser ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Population Structure ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
Humpback Whales ◽  
Breeding Grounds

scholarly journals Population structure of humpback whales in the western and central South Pacific Ocean as determined by vocal exchange among populations

2015 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 1198-1207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen C. Garland ◽  
Anne W. Goldizen ◽  
Matthew S. Lilley ◽  
Melinda L. Rekdahl ◽  
Claire Garrigue ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Population Structure ◽  
Pacific Ocean ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
Humpback Whales ◽  
South Pacific Ocean ◽  
Vocal Exchange ◽  
Central South

Population structure of humpback whales in the western and central South Pacific Ocean determined by vocal cultural exchange

2014 ◽  
Vol 135 (4) ◽  
pp. 2240-2240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen C. Garland ◽  
Michael J. Noad ◽  
Anne W. Goldizen ◽  
Matthew S. Lilley ◽  
Melinda L. Rekdahl ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Population Structure ◽  
Pacific Ocean ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
Cultural Exchange ◽  
Humpback Whales ◽  
South Pacific Ocean ◽  
Central South

scholarly journals Population Structure of Humpback Whales from Their Breeding Grounds in the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans

PLoS ONE ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 4 (10) ◽  
pp. e7318 ◽  
Author(s):  
Howard C. Rosenbaum ◽  
Cristina Pomilla ◽  
Martin Mendez ◽  
Matthew S. Leslie ◽  
Peter B. Best ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Population Structure ◽  
South Atlantic ◽  
Humpback Whales ◽  
The South ◽  
Breeding Grounds

scholarly journals First assessment of interchange of humpback whales between Oceania and the East coast of Australia

2020 ◽  
pp. 269-274
Author(s):  
Claire Garrigue ◽  
Trish Franklin ◽  
Rochelle Constantine ◽  
Kirsty Russell ◽  
Daniel Burns ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
East Coast ◽  
New Caledonia ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
French Polynesia ◽  
American Samoa ◽  
Individual Identification ◽  
Humpback Whales ◽  
Cook Island ◽  
Breeding Grounds

The interchange of individual humpback whales between the wintering grounds of Oceania (South Pacific) and the east coast of Australia weredocumented by individual identification photographs collected from 1999 to 2004. Interchange was assessed using regional catalogues of flukephotographs, totalling 672 individuals from Oceania (represented by New Zealand, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Niue, Cook Island,French Polynesia and American Samoa) and 1,242 individuals from Hervey Bay and Byron Bay representing the southbound and the northboundmigration along the east coast of Australia (EA). Overall, there were seven documented movements between EA and Oceania. Four instances ofmovement of four individuals were documented between EA and the closest breeding grounds of New Caledonia. A further three movements wererecorded between EA and a small catalogue (n = 13) from the New Zealand migratory corridor. In contrast, during this same period, 20 cases ofinterchange were documented among nine breeding grounds: French Polynesia, Cook Islands, Niue, American Samoa, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatuand New Caledonia. The low level of interchange between Oceania and the east coast of Australia has important implications for understanding thestock structure and abundance of humpback whales in the South Pacific.

scholarly journals Migratory preferences of humpback whales between feeding and breeding grounds in the eastern South Pacific

2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 1035-1052 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorge Acevedo ◽  
Anelio Aguayo-Lobo ◽  
Judith Allen ◽  
Natalia Botero-Acosta ◽  
Juan Capella ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Pacific ◽  
Humpback Whales ◽  
Breeding Grounds

scholarly journals Searching for humpback whales in a historical whaling hotspot of the Coral Sea, South Pacific

2020 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
pp. 67-82
Author(s):  
C Garrigue ◽  
S Derville ◽  
C Bonneville ◽  
CS Baker ◽  
T Cheeseman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Marine Protected Area ◽  
New Caledonia ◽  
Anthropogenic Activities ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
Humpback Whales ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Breeding Area ◽  
Pristine Area ◽  
Breeding Grounds ◽  
Commercial Whaling

Humpback whales Megaptera novaeangliae were severely depleted by commercial whaling. Understanding key factors in their recovery is a crucial step for their conservation worldwide. In Oceania, the Chesterfield-Bellona archipelago was a primary whaling site in the 19th century, yet has been left almost unaffected by anthropogenic activities since. We present the results of the first multidisciplinary dedicated surveys in the archipelago assessing humpback whale populations 2 centuries post-whaling. We encountered 57 groups during 24 survey days (2016-2017), among which 35 whales were identified using photographs of natural markings (photo-ID), 38 using genotyping and 22 using both. Humpback whales were sparsely distributed (0.041 whales km-1): most sightings concentrated in shallow inner-reef waters and neighbouring offshore shallow banks. The recently created marine protected area covers most of the areas of high predicted habitat suitability and high residence time from satellite-tracked whales. Surprisingly for a breeding area, sex ratios skewed towards females (1:2.4), and 45% of females were with calf. Connectivity was established with the New Caledonia breeding area to the east (mtDNA FST = 0.001, p > 0.05, 12 photo-ID and 10 genotype matches) and with the Australian Great Barrier Reef breeding area to the west (mtDNA FST = 0.006, p > 0.05). Movement of satellite-tracked whales and photo-ID matches also suggest connections with the east Australian migratory corridor. This study confirms that humpback whales still inhabit the Chesterfield-Bellona archipelago 2 centuries post whaling, and that this pristine area potentially plays a role in facilitating migratory interchange among breeding grounds of the western South Pacific.

scholarly journals Movement of individual humpback whales between wintering grounds of Oceania (South Pacific), 1999 to 2004

2020 ◽  
pp. 275-282
Author(s):  
Claire Garrigue ◽  
Rochelle Constantine ◽  
Michael Poole ◽  
Nan Hauser ◽  
Phil Clapham ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New Caledonia ◽  
Winter Season ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
French Polynesia ◽  
American Samoa ◽  
Humpback Whales ◽  
Wintering Grounds ◽  
Breeding Grounds ◽  
The Antarctic ◽  
Directional Trend

The movement of individual humpback whales between regional breeding grounds of Oceania (South Pacific) was documented by individualidentification photographs collected from 1999 to 2004. Photographs were collected with comparable effort across the six years in four primaryisland breeding grounds: New Caledonia, Tonga (Vava’u) the Cook Islands and French Polynesia (Mo’orea and Rurutu); with smaller effort inadjacent regions: Vanuatu, Fiji, Samoa, Niue and American Samoa. Interchange among wintering grounds was assessed first with all usablephotographs included in each regional catalogue, representing 1,080 regional sightings (including within-region and between-region resightings)of 949 individual whales from Oceania. From this, 28 cases of movement between (mostly adjacent) regions were documented. Previouslyundocumented interchange was found between regions of central Oceania and the western South Pacific. No individual was sighted in more thantwo regions during this six-year period. The documented movement between regions was one-directional, except for one individual sighted first inFrench Polynesia, then in American Samoa and then back in French Polynesia (each in different years). Only one whale was resighted in more thanone region during the same winter season. No directional trend was apparent and movement between regions did not seem to be sex specific. Asystematic quality control review of all catalogues was then implemented to calculate standardised indices of within-region return and betweenregion interchange, resulting in a quality controlled catalogue of 776 regional sightings of 659 individuals. The standardised indices confirmed thatthe probability of between-region interchange was low, relative to within-region return, supporting the assumption of multiple management unitsor stocks in Oceania. The relative isolation of breeding regions and the movement of individuals across the longitudinal borders of Antarcticmanagement Areas V and VI has important implications for the allocation of historical catches from the Antarctic and therefore, for assessingcurrent levels of recovery for breeding stocks

scholarly journals Multi-year presence of humpback whales in the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean but not during El Niño

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Schall ◽  
Karolin Thomisch ◽  
Olaf Boebel ◽  
Gabriele Gerlach ◽  
Sari Mangia Woods ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Southern Ocean ◽  
El Niño ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Humpback Whales ◽  
Low Latitude ◽  
Sea Ice Extent ◽  
Atlantic Sector ◽  
Acoustic Data ◽  
Breeding Grounds ◽  
Passive Acoustic

AbstractHumpback whales are thought to undertake annual migrations between their low latitude breeding grounds and high latitude feeding grounds. However, under specific conditions, humpback whales sometimes change their migratory destination or skip migration overall. Here we document the surprising persistent presence of humpback whales in the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean during five years (2011, 2012, 2013, 2017, and 2018) using passive acoustic data. However, in the El Niño years 2015 and 2016, humpback whales were virtually absent. Our data show that humpback whales are systematically present in the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean and suggest that these whales are particularly sensitive to climate oscillations which have profound effects on winds, sea ice extent, primary production, and especially krill productivity.

A longitudinal study of humpback whales in Irish waters

2015 ◽  
Vol 96 (4) ◽  
pp. 877-883 ◽  
Author(s):  
Conor Ryan ◽  
Pádraig Whooley ◽  
Simon D. Berrow ◽  
Colin Barnes ◽  
Nick Massett ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Humpback Whales ◽  
Migratory Species ◽  
The Public ◽  
Photo Identification ◽  
The North ◽  
Breeding Grounds ◽  
Eastern North Atlantic

Knowledge on the ecology of humpback whales in the eastern North Atlantic is lacking by comparison with most other ocean basins. Humpback whales were historically over-exploited in the region and are still found in low relative abundances. This, coupled with their large range makes them difficult to study. With the aim of informing more effective conservation measures in Ireland, the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group began recording sightings and images suitable for photo-identification of humpback whales from Irish waters in 1999. Validated records submitted by members of the public and data from dedicated surveys were analysed to form a longitudinal study of individually recognizable humpback whales. The distribution, relative abundance and seasonality of humpback whale sighting records are presented, revealing discrete important areas for humpback whales in Irish coastal waters. An annual easterly movement of humpback whales along the southern coast of Ireland is documented, mirroring that of their preferred prey: herring and sprat. Photo-identification images were compared with others collected throughout the North Atlantic (N = 8016), resulting in matches of two individuals between Ireland and Iceland, Norway and the Netherlands but no matches to known breeding grounds (Cape Verde and West Indies). This study demonstrates that combining public records with dedicated survey data is an effective approach to studying low-density, threatened migratory species over temporal and spatial scales that are relevant to conservation and management.

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