Estimation of Adult Bowhead Whale Survival Rates
The survival rate of adult bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus) is one of the few remaining life history parameters still needing empirical support before full assessment of the health of this stock can be completed. Members of the Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission have req...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
1996
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.29.5200 http://www.eurandom.tue.nl/whitcher/papers/bowhead.ps.gz |
| Summary: | The survival rate of adult bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus) is one of the few remaining life history parameters still needing empirical support before full assessment of the health of this stock can be completed. Members of the Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission have requested an estimate of this survival rate. Accordingly, databases from aerial photographs of identifiable bowhead whales were used for mark-recapture estimation of the rate. The photographs were collected over the past 15 years by LGL Ltd., the National Marine Mammal Laboratory and Cascadia Research Collective. Data from the highest quality images collected 1981--91 were put through both a modified Jolly-Seber analysis and a SandlandKirkwood -Clobert (SKC) analysis to calculate annual survival probabilities. Using a weighted arithmetic mean of annual survival probabilities, and deleting the first estimate for each cohort, the modified Jolly-Seber estimate is 0.986 (with a 95% confidence inter. |
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