Historical reconstruction of the population dynamics of southern right whales in the southwestern Atlantic Ocean
Abstract Understanding the recovery of whale populations is critical for developing population-management and conservation strategies. The southern right whale (SRW) Eubalena australis was one of the baleen whale species that has experienced centuries of exploitation. We assess here for the first ti...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:304d91e53cca44098be2610868f9d9b5 2023-05-15T15:36:58+02:00 Historical reconstruction of the population dynamics of southern right whales in the southwestern Atlantic Ocean M. A. Romero M. A. Coscarella G. D. Adams J. C. Pedraza R. A. González E. A. Crespo 2022-02-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-07370-6 https://doaj.org/article/304d91e53cca44098be2610868f9d9b5 EN eng Nature Portfolio https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-07370-6 https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322 doi:10.1038/s41598-022-07370-6 2045-2322 https://doaj.org/article/304d91e53cca44098be2610868f9d9b5 Scientific Reports, Vol 12, Iss 1, Pp 1-17 (2022) Medicine R Science Q article 2022 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-07370-6 2022-12-31T16:01:12Z Abstract Understanding the recovery of whale populations is critical for developing population-management and conservation strategies. The southern right whale (SRW) Eubalena australis was one of the baleen whale species that has experienced centuries of exploitation. We assess here for the first time the population dynamics of the SRW from the southwestern Atlantic Ocean at the regional level to measure numerically the effect of whaling and estimate the population trend and recovery level after depletion. We reconstructed the catch history of whaling for the period 1670–1973 by an extensive review of different literature sources and developed a Bayesian state-space model to estimate the demographic parameters. The population trajectory indicated that the pre-exploitation abundance was close to 58,000 individuals (median = 58,212; 95% CI = 33,329–100,920). The abundance dropped to its lowest abundance levels in the 1830s when fewer than 2,000 individuals remained. The current median population abundance was estimated at 4,742 whales (95% CI = 3,853–6,013), suggesting that the SRW population remains small relative to its pre-exploitation abundance (median depletion P 2021 8.7%). We estimated that close to 36% of the SRW population visits the waters of the Península Valdés, the main breeding ground, every year. Our results provide insights into the severity of the whaling operation in the southwestern Atlantic along with the population´s response at low densities, thus contributing to understand the observed differences in population trends over the distributional range of the species worldwide. Article in Journal/Newspaper baleen whale Southern Right Whale Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Scientific Reports 12 1 |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
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ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Medicine R Science Q |
spellingShingle |
Medicine R Science Q M. A. Romero M. A. Coscarella G. D. Adams J. C. Pedraza R. A. González E. A. Crespo Historical reconstruction of the population dynamics of southern right whales in the southwestern Atlantic Ocean |
topic_facet |
Medicine R Science Q |
description |
Abstract Understanding the recovery of whale populations is critical for developing population-management and conservation strategies. The southern right whale (SRW) Eubalena australis was one of the baleen whale species that has experienced centuries of exploitation. We assess here for the first time the population dynamics of the SRW from the southwestern Atlantic Ocean at the regional level to measure numerically the effect of whaling and estimate the population trend and recovery level after depletion. We reconstructed the catch history of whaling for the period 1670–1973 by an extensive review of different literature sources and developed a Bayesian state-space model to estimate the demographic parameters. The population trajectory indicated that the pre-exploitation abundance was close to 58,000 individuals (median = 58,212; 95% CI = 33,329–100,920). The abundance dropped to its lowest abundance levels in the 1830s when fewer than 2,000 individuals remained. The current median population abundance was estimated at 4,742 whales (95% CI = 3,853–6,013), suggesting that the SRW population remains small relative to its pre-exploitation abundance (median depletion P 2021 8.7%). We estimated that close to 36% of the SRW population visits the waters of the Península Valdés, the main breeding ground, every year. Our results provide insights into the severity of the whaling operation in the southwestern Atlantic along with the population´s response at low densities, thus contributing to understand the observed differences in population trends over the distributional range of the species worldwide. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
M. A. Romero M. A. Coscarella G. D. Adams J. C. Pedraza R. A. González E. A. Crespo |
author_facet |
M. A. Romero M. A. Coscarella G. D. Adams J. C. Pedraza R. A. González E. A. Crespo |
author_sort |
M. A. Romero |
title |
Historical reconstruction of the population dynamics of southern right whales in the southwestern Atlantic Ocean |
title_short |
Historical reconstruction of the population dynamics of southern right whales in the southwestern Atlantic Ocean |
title_full |
Historical reconstruction of the population dynamics of southern right whales in the southwestern Atlantic Ocean |
title_fullStr |
Historical reconstruction of the population dynamics of southern right whales in the southwestern Atlantic Ocean |
title_full_unstemmed |
Historical reconstruction of the population dynamics of southern right whales in the southwestern Atlantic Ocean |
title_sort |
historical reconstruction of the population dynamics of southern right whales in the southwestern atlantic ocean |
publisher |
Nature Portfolio |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-07370-6 https://doaj.org/article/304d91e53cca44098be2610868f9d9b5 |
genre |
baleen whale Southern Right Whale |
genre_facet |
baleen whale Southern Right Whale |
op_source |
Scientific Reports, Vol 12, Iss 1, Pp 1-17 (2022) |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-07370-6 https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322 doi:10.1038/s41598-022-07370-6 2045-2322 https://doaj.org/article/304d91e53cca44098be2610868f9d9b5 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-07370-6 |
container_title |
Scientific Reports |
container_volume |
12 |
container_issue |
1 |
_version_ |
1766367410072322048 |