Data from: An integrated approach to historical population assessment of the great whales: case of the New Zealand southern right whale ...

• Main Authors: Jackson, Jennifer A., Carroll, Emma L., Smith, Tim D., Zerbini, Alex N., Patenaude, Nathalie J., Baker, C. Scott
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2016
• Subjects: whaling; historical abundance; Eubalaena; recovery; 200 years; New Zealand; Southern Right Whale
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.c3s62; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.c3s62

Accurate estimation of historical abundance provides an essential baseline for judging the recovery of the great whales. This is particularly challenging for whales hunted prior to twentieth century modern whaling, as population-level catch records are often incomplete. Assessments of whale recovery using pre-modern exploitation indices are therefore rare, despite the intensive, global nature of nineteenth century whaling. Right whales (Eubalaena spp.) were particularly exploited: slow swimmers with strong fidelity to sheltered calving bays, the species made predictable and easy targets. Here, we present the first integrated population-level assessment of the whaling impact and pre-exploitation abundance of a right whale, the New Zealand southern right whale (E. australis). In this assessment, we use a Bayesian population dynamics model integrating multiple data sources: nineteenth century catches, genetic constraints on bottleneck size and individual sightings histories informing abundance and trend. ... : Southern right whale population modelThis is the R script used to conduct the population assessments. Two example calls are also given.SRW_SIR_pop_model_REV.rSouthern right whale catch series for New Zealand and Southeast PacificCatch series data, as described in Carroll et al. 2014 (PLoS One 9:e93789), for input into population assessment model.Catch_inputs.csv ...