Estimates of large whale abundance in Greenland waters from a ship-based survey in 2005 5
A ship-based line transect survey of large whales in East and West Greenland was conducted in September 2005. The survey platform primarily targeted capelin, Mallotus villosus, using acoustic methods and systematically covered the east and west coasts of Greenland from the coast to the shelf break (...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
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| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.172.1307 http://www.iwcoffice.org/_documents/sci_com/SC59docs/SC-59-ForInformation13.pdf |
| Summary: | A ship-based line transect survey of large whales in East and West Greenland was conducted in September 2005. The survey platform primarily targeted capelin, Mallotus villosus, using acoustic methods and systematically covered the east and west coasts of Greenland from the coast to the shelf break (approximately 200 m). The surveyed area comprised 81000 km 2 in East Greenland and 225000 km 2 in West Greenland. A total of 194 sightings of 13 cetacean species were obtained and standard line transect methods were used to derive abundance estimates of the four most commonly encountered large cetaceans. Fin whales, Balaenoptera physalus, were most abundant in East Greenland (3214, 95 % CI 980-10547) with lower abundances estimated for West Greenland (1980, 95 % CI 913-4296). Sei whales, Balaenoptera borealis, were frequently encountered in the same areas as the fin whale, but the estimated abundance in East Greenland (763, 95 % CI 236-2465) was lower than in West Greenland (1599, 95 % CI 690-3705). Humpback whales, Megaptera novaeangliae, were found both in offshore and coastal areas of West Greenland (1306, 95 % CI 570-2989) and in low numbers in East |
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