APPENDIX IV: Marine Mammal stock assessment reports not updated in 2006. SEI WHALE (Balaenoptera borealis):
Indications are that, at least during the feeding season, a major portion of the Northwest Atlantic sei whale population is centered in northerly waters, perhaps on the Scotian Shelf (Mitchell and Chapman 1977). The southern portion of the species ' range during spring and summer includes the n...
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2005
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| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.174.6054 http://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/publications/tm/tm201/pdfs/211-213.pdf |
| Summary: | Indications are that, at least during the feeding season, a major portion of the Northwest Atlantic sei whale population is centered in northerly waters, perhaps on the Scotian Shelf (Mitchell and Chapman 1977). The southern portion of the species ' range during spring and summer includes the northern portions of the U.S. Atlantic Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)- the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank. The period of greatest abundance there is in spring, with sightings concentrated along the eastern margin of Georges Bank and into the Northeast Channel area, and along the southwestern edge of Georges Bank in the area of Hydrographer Canyon (CETAP 1982). NMFS aerial surveys in 1999, 2000 and 2001 found concentrations of sei and right whales along the Northern Edge of Georges Bank in the spring. The sei whale is often found in the deeper waters characteristic of the continental shelf edge region (Hain et al. 1985), and NMFS aerial surveys found substantial numbers of sei whales in this region, south of Nantucket, in the spring of 2001. Similarly, Mitchell (1975) reported that sei whales off Nova Scotia were often distributed closer to the 2,000 m depth contour than were fin whales. This general offshore pattern of sei whale distribution is disrupted during episodic incursions into more shallow and inshore waters. Although known to take piscine prey, sei whales (like right whales) are largely planktivorous, feeding primarily on euphausiids and copepods. In years of reduced predation on copepods by other predators, and thus greater abundance of this prey source, sei whales are reported in more inshore locations, such as the Great South Channel (in 1987 |
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