Modelling the behaviour state of humpback whales Megaptera novaeangliae in response to vessel presence off Sydney, Australia
The largest southern hemisphere humpback whale Megaptera novaeangliae stock (El) uses the east coast of Australia as a migratory corridor to travel between their high-latitude feeding grounds in the Southern Ocean and low-latitude breeding grounds in northeast Queensland and the south-west Pacific O...
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Online Access: | https://researchers.mq.edu.au/en/publications/fd39b83e-e6de-436a-890e-c3a5c37713b2 https://doi.org/10.3354/esr00380 https://research-management.mq.edu.au/ws/files/62294657/Publisher%20version%20(open%20access).pdf http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84864300512&partnerID=8YFLogxK |
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ftmacquarieunicr:oai:https://researchers.mq.edu.au:publications/fd39b83e-e6de-436a-890e-c3a5c37713b2 2024-09-15T18:11:14+00:00 Modelling the behaviour state of humpback whales Megaptera novaeangliae in response to vessel presence off Sydney, Australia Gulesserian, Maryrose Slip, David Heller, Gillian Harcourt, Robert 2011 application/pdf https://researchers.mq.edu.au/en/publications/fd39b83e-e6de-436a-890e-c3a5c37713b2 https://doi.org/10.3354/esr00380 https://research-management.mq.edu.au/ws/files/62294657/Publisher%20version%20(open%20access).pdf http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84864300512&partnerID=8YFLogxK eng eng info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Gulesserian , M , Slip , D , Heller , G & Harcourt , R 2011 , ' Modelling the behaviour state of humpback whales Megaptera novaeangliae in response to vessel presence off Sydney, Australia ' , Endangered Species Research , vol. 15 , no. 3 , pp. 255-264 . https://doi.org/10.3354/esr00380 article 2011 ftmacquarieunicr https://doi.org/10.3354/esr00380 2024-07-24T23:38:44Z The largest southern hemisphere humpback whale Megaptera novaeangliae stock (El) uses the east coast of Australia as a migratory corridor to travel between their high-latitude feeding grounds in the Southern Ocean and low-latitude breeding grounds in northeast Queensland and the south-west Pacific Ocean. The population is recovering at close to the maximum rate of growth (rm), and the increasing abundance of whales passing within sight of land has facilitated the development of a growing land- and vessel-based whale watching industry. We observed the behaviour of 156 individual pods of humpback whales passing Sydney, New South Wales, during their 2006 and 2007 northern migration and monitored vessel-whale interactions with respect to the Australian National Guidelines for Whale and Dolphin Watching 2005. We applied generalised linear mixed models with random effects to compute the odds of changing to the current behaviour state. We found that in the presence of vessels, whales were more likely to remain on the surface breathing or to cease surface breathing and switch to generally short, shallow diving than was the case when no vessels were present. Northerly migrating whales off Sydney were more likely to remain on the surface breathing in the presence of vessels, rather than taking some form of vertical avoidance (deep, long dives) as reported elsewhere. Given the high rate of population increase of stock El and the low level of behavioural changes seen, it appears that for this population at least, adult humpback whales migrating to their breeding grounds are relatively robust to disturbance by whale watching. Article in Journal/Newspaper Humpback Whale Megaptera novaeangliae Southern Ocean Macquarie University Research Portal Endangered Species Research 15 3 255 264 |
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Macquarie University Research Portal |
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ftmacquarieunicr |
language |
English |
description |
The largest southern hemisphere humpback whale Megaptera novaeangliae stock (El) uses the east coast of Australia as a migratory corridor to travel between their high-latitude feeding grounds in the Southern Ocean and low-latitude breeding grounds in northeast Queensland and the south-west Pacific Ocean. The population is recovering at close to the maximum rate of growth (rm), and the increasing abundance of whales passing within sight of land has facilitated the development of a growing land- and vessel-based whale watching industry. We observed the behaviour of 156 individual pods of humpback whales passing Sydney, New South Wales, during their 2006 and 2007 northern migration and monitored vessel-whale interactions with respect to the Australian National Guidelines for Whale and Dolphin Watching 2005. We applied generalised linear mixed models with random effects to compute the odds of changing to the current behaviour state. We found that in the presence of vessels, whales were more likely to remain on the surface breathing or to cease surface breathing and switch to generally short, shallow diving than was the case when no vessels were present. Northerly migrating whales off Sydney were more likely to remain on the surface breathing in the presence of vessels, rather than taking some form of vertical avoidance (deep, long dives) as reported elsewhere. Given the high rate of population increase of stock El and the low level of behavioural changes seen, it appears that for this population at least, adult humpback whales migrating to their breeding grounds are relatively robust to disturbance by whale watching. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Gulesserian, Maryrose Slip, David Heller, Gillian Harcourt, Robert |
spellingShingle |
Gulesserian, Maryrose Slip, David Heller, Gillian Harcourt, Robert Modelling the behaviour state of humpback whales Megaptera novaeangliae in response to vessel presence off Sydney, Australia |
author_facet |
Gulesserian, Maryrose Slip, David Heller, Gillian Harcourt, Robert |
author_sort |
Gulesserian, Maryrose |
title |
Modelling the behaviour state of humpback whales Megaptera novaeangliae in response to vessel presence off Sydney, Australia |
title_short |
Modelling the behaviour state of humpback whales Megaptera novaeangliae in response to vessel presence off Sydney, Australia |
title_full |
Modelling the behaviour state of humpback whales Megaptera novaeangliae in response to vessel presence off Sydney, Australia |
title_fullStr |
Modelling the behaviour state of humpback whales Megaptera novaeangliae in response to vessel presence off Sydney, Australia |
title_full_unstemmed |
Modelling the behaviour state of humpback whales Megaptera novaeangliae in response to vessel presence off Sydney, Australia |
title_sort |
modelling the behaviour state of humpback whales megaptera novaeangliae in response to vessel presence off sydney, australia |
publishDate |
2011 |
url |
https://researchers.mq.edu.au/en/publications/fd39b83e-e6de-436a-890e-c3a5c37713b2 https://doi.org/10.3354/esr00380 https://research-management.mq.edu.au/ws/files/62294657/Publisher%20version%20(open%20access).pdf http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84864300512&partnerID=8YFLogxK |
genre |
Humpback Whale Megaptera novaeangliae Southern Ocean |
genre_facet |
Humpback Whale Megaptera novaeangliae Southern Ocean |
op_source |
Gulesserian , M , Slip , D , Heller , G & Harcourt , R 2011 , ' Modelling the behaviour state of humpback whales Megaptera novaeangliae in response to vessel presence off Sydney, Australia ' , Endangered Species Research , vol. 15 , no. 3 , pp. 255-264 . https://doi.org/10.3354/esr00380 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3354/esr00380 |
container_title |
Endangered Species Research |
container_volume |
15 |
container_issue |
3 |
container_start_page |
255 |
op_container_end_page |
264 |
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1810448830783553536 |