High mortality of blue, humpback and fin whales from modeling of vessel collisions on the U.S. West Coast suggests population impacts and insufficient protection.
Mortality from collisions with vessels is one of the main human causes of death for large whales. Ship strikes are rarely witnessed and the distribution of strike risk and estimates of mortality remain uncertain at best. We estimated ship strike mortality for blue humpback and fin whales in U.S. Wes...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:521214353e8d46b69c473c02b9e4da28 2023-05-15T16:13:20+02:00 High mortality of blue, humpback and fin whales from modeling of vessel collisions on the U.S. West Coast suggests population impacts and insufficient protection. R Cotton Rockwood John Calambokidis Jaime Jahncke 2017-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0183052 https://doaj.org/article/521214353e8d46b69c473c02b9e4da28 EN eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5565115?pdf=render https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203 1932-6203 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0183052 https://doaj.org/article/521214353e8d46b69c473c02b9e4da28 PLoS ONE, Vol 12, Iss 8, p e0183052 (2017) Medicine R Science Q article 2017 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0183052 2022-12-31T10:43:06Z Mortality from collisions with vessels is one of the main human causes of death for large whales. Ship strikes are rarely witnessed and the distribution of strike risk and estimates of mortality remain uncertain at best. We estimated ship strike mortality for blue humpback and fin whales in U.S. West Coast waters using a novel application of a naval encounter model. Mortality estimates from the model were far higher than current minimum estimates derived from stranding records and are closer to extrapolations adjusted for detection probabilities of dead whales. Our most conservative model estimated mortality to be 7.8x, 2.0x and 2.7x the U.S. recommended limit for blue, humpback and fin whales, respectively, suggesting that death from vessel collisions may be a significant impediment to population growth and recovery. Comparing across the study area, the majority of strike mortality occurs in waters off California, from Bodega Bay south and tends to be concentrated in a band approximately 24 Nm (44.5 km) offshore and in designated shipping lanes leading to and from major ports. While some mortality risk exists across nearly all West Coast waters, 74%, 82% and 65% of blue, humpback and fin whale mortality, respectively, occurs in just 10% of the study area, suggesting conservation efforts can be very effective if focused in these waters. Risk is highest in the shipping lanes off San Francisco and Long Beach, but only a fraction of total estimated mortality occurs in these proportionally small areas, making any conservation efforts exclusively within these areas insufficient to address overall strike mortality. We recommend combining shipping lane modifications and re-locations, ship speed reductions and creation of 'Areas to be Avoided' by vessels in ecologically important locations to address this significant source of whale mortality. Article in Journal/Newspaper Fin whale Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Long Beach Lanes ENVELOPE(18.933,18.933,69.617,69.617) PLOS ONE 12 8 e0183052 |
institution |
Open Polar |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Medicine R Science Q |
spellingShingle |
Medicine R Science Q R Cotton Rockwood John Calambokidis Jaime Jahncke High mortality of blue, humpback and fin whales from modeling of vessel collisions on the U.S. West Coast suggests population impacts and insufficient protection. |
topic_facet |
Medicine R Science Q |
description |
Mortality from collisions with vessels is one of the main human causes of death for large whales. Ship strikes are rarely witnessed and the distribution of strike risk and estimates of mortality remain uncertain at best. We estimated ship strike mortality for blue humpback and fin whales in U.S. West Coast waters using a novel application of a naval encounter model. Mortality estimates from the model were far higher than current minimum estimates derived from stranding records and are closer to extrapolations adjusted for detection probabilities of dead whales. Our most conservative model estimated mortality to be 7.8x, 2.0x and 2.7x the U.S. recommended limit for blue, humpback and fin whales, respectively, suggesting that death from vessel collisions may be a significant impediment to population growth and recovery. Comparing across the study area, the majority of strike mortality occurs in waters off California, from Bodega Bay south and tends to be concentrated in a band approximately 24 Nm (44.5 km) offshore and in designated shipping lanes leading to and from major ports. While some mortality risk exists across nearly all West Coast waters, 74%, 82% and 65% of blue, humpback and fin whale mortality, respectively, occurs in just 10% of the study area, suggesting conservation efforts can be very effective if focused in these waters. Risk is highest in the shipping lanes off San Francisco and Long Beach, but only a fraction of total estimated mortality occurs in these proportionally small areas, making any conservation efforts exclusively within these areas insufficient to address overall strike mortality. We recommend combining shipping lane modifications and re-locations, ship speed reductions and creation of 'Areas to be Avoided' by vessels in ecologically important locations to address this significant source of whale mortality. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
R Cotton Rockwood John Calambokidis Jaime Jahncke |
author_facet |
R Cotton Rockwood John Calambokidis Jaime Jahncke |
author_sort |
R Cotton Rockwood |
title |
High mortality of blue, humpback and fin whales from modeling of vessel collisions on the U.S. West Coast suggests population impacts and insufficient protection. |
title_short |
High mortality of blue, humpback and fin whales from modeling of vessel collisions on the U.S. West Coast suggests population impacts and insufficient protection. |
title_full |
High mortality of blue, humpback and fin whales from modeling of vessel collisions on the U.S. West Coast suggests population impacts and insufficient protection. |
title_fullStr |
High mortality of blue, humpback and fin whales from modeling of vessel collisions on the U.S. West Coast suggests population impacts and insufficient protection. |
title_full_unstemmed |
High mortality of blue, humpback and fin whales from modeling of vessel collisions on the U.S. West Coast suggests population impacts and insufficient protection. |
title_sort |
high mortality of blue, humpback and fin whales from modeling of vessel collisions on the u.s. west coast suggests population impacts and insufficient protection. |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0183052 https://doaj.org/article/521214353e8d46b69c473c02b9e4da28 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(18.933,18.933,69.617,69.617) |
geographic |
Long Beach Lanes |
geographic_facet |
Long Beach Lanes |
genre |
Fin whale |
genre_facet |
Fin whale |
op_source |
PLoS ONE, Vol 12, Iss 8, p e0183052 (2017) |
op_relation |
http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5565115?pdf=render https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203 1932-6203 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0183052 https://doaj.org/article/521214353e8d46b69c473c02b9e4da28 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0183052 |
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PLOS ONE |
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12 |
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