Supplementary material from "Disentangling the influence of entanglement on recruitment in North Atlantic right whales" ...

• Main Authors: Reed, Joshua, New, Leslie, Corkeron, Peter, Harcourt, Robert
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: The Royal Society 2024
• Subjects: Ecology not elsewhere classified; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.7095343; https://rs.figshare.com/collections/Supplementary_material_from_Disentangling_the_influence_of_entanglement_on_recruitment_in_North_Atlantic_right_whales_/7095343

North Atlantic right whales are Critically Endangered and declining, with entanglements in fishing gear a key contributor to their decline. Entanglement events can result in lethal and sub-lethal (i.e. increased energetic demands and reduced foraging ability) impacts, with the latter influencing critical life-history states, such as reproduction. Using a multi-event framework, we developed a Bayesian mark-recapture model to investigate the influence of entanglement severity on survival and recruitment for female right whales. We used information from 199 known-aged females sighted between 1977 and 2018, combined with known entanglements of varying severity that were classified as minor, moderate or severe. Severe entanglements resulted in an average decline in survival of 27% for experienced non-breeders, 9% for breeders and 26% for pre-breeding females compared to other entanglements and unentangled individuals. Surviving individuals with severe entanglements had low transitional probabilities to breeders, ...