An analysis of historic (1908-1967) whaling records from British Columbia, Canada ...

• Main Author: Gregr, Edward James
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2009
• Subjects: Balaenoptera borealis; Balaenoptera musculus; Balaenoptera physalus; Megaptera novaeangliae; Physeter macrocephalus
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0074856; https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0074856

Analysis of data recorded from 24,862 whales killed by British Columbia coastal whaling stations between 1908 and 1967 revealed trends in the abundance, sex ratios, age structure and the distance from shore of sperm (Physeter macrocephalus), sei (Balaenoptera borealis), fin (Balaenoptera physalus), humpback (Megaptera novaeangliae) and blue (Balaenoptera musculus) whales. Trends in the relationships between records of where the whales were killed (n=l 0,275) and a simple oceanographic model were used to build generalized linear models, from which predictions of whale habitat were generated. The catch data were analyzed using annual and monthly mean values. Monthly and annual variation in whaling effort was deduced from accounts of the history of British Columbia coastal whaling, and biases arising from changes in effort were considered in the interpretation of the results. Predictive habitat models were produced at annual and monthly time scales based on an initial analysis of the univariate relationships ...