Migrations of juvenile southern elephant seals from Macquarie Island ...

• Main Author: van den Hoff, J
• Format: Thesis
• Language: unknown
• Published: University Of Tasmania 2023
• Subjects: Elephant Seals; Macquarie Island; Mirounga leonina; Southern Elephant Seals
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.25959/23241029.v1; https://figshare.utas.edu.au/articles/thesis/Migrations_of_juvenile_southern_elephant_seals_from_Macquarie_Island/23241029/1

I analysed tag resight and at-sea location data collected for juvenile (> 1 - 3 year-old) southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) from Macquarie Island to establish these particular objectives: 1. Identifying regions where the seals disperse to and/or migrate between. 2. Establishing a spatial scale for plotting and correlating geolocations with ocean features and zones. 3. Recording the important foraging areas essential to the survival of these seals. 4. Quantifying the degree to which the seals share their marine habitat with differing age groups and sexes of elephant seals, and with commercial fisheries. Permanently marking seals provides information relating to haulout locality and timing, migration duration and age related dispersal. Southern elephant seals marked at Macquarie Island disperse to distant locations where they are sometimes seen during their moult and, for juveniles, a mid-year haulout period (July-August). Most (87%) of the seals resighted were within 1 OOO km of Macquarie Island, ...