Rice’s whales in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico: call variation and occurrence beyond the known core habitat
The endangered Rice’s whaleBalaenoptera ricei, with fewer than 100 individuals remaining, is the only year-round resident baleen whale found in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) and occurs primarily along the northeastern shelf break near De Soto Canyon. Historical whaling records and predictive density mode...
Published in: | Endangered Species Research |
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2022
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Online Access: | https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9hg2g51c https://doi.org/10.3354/esr01196 |
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ftcdlib:oai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt9hg2g51c 2024-09-15T17:57:26+00:00 Rice’s whales in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico: call variation and occurrence beyond the known core habitat Soldevilla, MS Debich, AJ Garrison, LP Hildebrand, JA Wiggins, SM 2022-07-28 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9hg2g51c https://doi.org/10.3354/esr01196 unknown eScholarship, University of California qt9hg2g51c https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9hg2g51c doi:10.3354/esr01196 CC-BY Life on Land Rice's whale Balaenoptera ricei Gulf of Mexico Bryde's whale Balaenoptera edeni Passive acoustic monitoring Distribution Environmental Sciences Biological Sciences Ecology article 2022 ftcdlib https://doi.org/10.3354/esr01196 2024-06-28T06:28:19Z The endangered Rice’s whaleBalaenoptera ricei, with fewer than 100 individuals remaining, is the only year-round resident baleen whale found in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) and occurs primarily along the northeastern shelf break near De Soto Canyon. Historical whaling records and predictive density modeling suggest that these whales potentially could occur more broadly throughout the GOM. High levels of anthropogenic activities in the GOM, including oil and gas exploration and extraction, fisheries, shipping, and the unprecedentedDeepwater Horizonoil spill, highlight the need to better understand the distribution, ecology, and threats to this small population to improve protection of these endangered whales. We used long-term passive acoustic recordings from the northwestern GOM shelf break to explore the extent of Rice’s whale distribution in the northern GOM and to evaluate whether they exhibit seasonal movements throughout this range. We describe 6 new stereotyped variants of Rice’s whale long-moan calls, found predominantly in the western GOM, that share distinctive features with typical eastern long-moans, including a 150 Hz starting tone, an approximately 100 Hz tail with amplitude modulation, and a long call duration ranging from 10 to 35 s. Western long-moan variants were detected at 3 northwestern sites, occurring sporadically throughout the year on as many as 16% of days at the westernmost site, and infrequently at an eastern core-habitat site. These results indicate that some whales persistently occur over a broader range in the GOM than previously understood, which is important to consider when designating critical habitat and assessing threats to this Critically Endangered species. Article in Journal/Newspaper baleen whale University of California: eScholarship Endangered Species Research 48 155 174 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of California: eScholarship |
op_collection_id |
ftcdlib |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Life on Land Rice's whale Balaenoptera ricei Gulf of Mexico Bryde's whale Balaenoptera edeni Passive acoustic monitoring Distribution Environmental Sciences Biological Sciences Ecology |
spellingShingle |
Life on Land Rice's whale Balaenoptera ricei Gulf of Mexico Bryde's whale Balaenoptera edeni Passive acoustic monitoring Distribution Environmental Sciences Biological Sciences Ecology Soldevilla, MS Debich, AJ Garrison, LP Hildebrand, JA Wiggins, SM Rice’s whales in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico: call variation and occurrence beyond the known core habitat |
topic_facet |
Life on Land Rice's whale Balaenoptera ricei Gulf of Mexico Bryde's whale Balaenoptera edeni Passive acoustic monitoring Distribution Environmental Sciences Biological Sciences Ecology |
description |
The endangered Rice’s whaleBalaenoptera ricei, with fewer than 100 individuals remaining, is the only year-round resident baleen whale found in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) and occurs primarily along the northeastern shelf break near De Soto Canyon. Historical whaling records and predictive density modeling suggest that these whales potentially could occur more broadly throughout the GOM. High levels of anthropogenic activities in the GOM, including oil and gas exploration and extraction, fisheries, shipping, and the unprecedentedDeepwater Horizonoil spill, highlight the need to better understand the distribution, ecology, and threats to this small population to improve protection of these endangered whales. We used long-term passive acoustic recordings from the northwestern GOM shelf break to explore the extent of Rice’s whale distribution in the northern GOM and to evaluate whether they exhibit seasonal movements throughout this range. We describe 6 new stereotyped variants of Rice’s whale long-moan calls, found predominantly in the western GOM, that share distinctive features with typical eastern long-moans, including a 150 Hz starting tone, an approximately 100 Hz tail with amplitude modulation, and a long call duration ranging from 10 to 35 s. Western long-moan variants were detected at 3 northwestern sites, occurring sporadically throughout the year on as many as 16% of days at the westernmost site, and infrequently at an eastern core-habitat site. These results indicate that some whales persistently occur over a broader range in the GOM than previously understood, which is important to consider when designating critical habitat and assessing threats to this Critically Endangered species. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Soldevilla, MS Debich, AJ Garrison, LP Hildebrand, JA Wiggins, SM |
author_facet |
Soldevilla, MS Debich, AJ Garrison, LP Hildebrand, JA Wiggins, SM |
author_sort |
Soldevilla, MS |
title |
Rice’s whales in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico: call variation and occurrence beyond the known core habitat |
title_short |
Rice’s whales in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico: call variation and occurrence beyond the known core habitat |
title_full |
Rice’s whales in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico: call variation and occurrence beyond the known core habitat |
title_fullStr |
Rice’s whales in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico: call variation and occurrence beyond the known core habitat |
title_full_unstemmed |
Rice’s whales in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico: call variation and occurrence beyond the known core habitat |
title_sort |
rice’s whales in the northwestern gulf of mexico: call variation and occurrence beyond the known core habitat |
publisher |
eScholarship, University of California |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9hg2g51c https://doi.org/10.3354/esr01196 |
genre |
baleen whale |
genre_facet |
baleen whale |
op_relation |
qt9hg2g51c https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9hg2g51c doi:10.3354/esr01196 |
op_rights |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3354/esr01196 |
container_title |
Endangered Species Research |
container_volume |
48 |
container_start_page |
155 |
op_container_end_page |
174 |
_version_ |
1810433575751778304 |