An integrated approach to historical population assessment of the great whales: case of the New Zealand southern right whale
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...
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ftnerc:oai:nora.nerc.ac.uk:511537 2023-05-15T18:26:16+02:00 An integrated approach to historical population assessment of the great whales: case of the New Zealand southern right whale Jackson, Jennifer A. Carroll, Emma L. Smith, Tim D. Zerbini, Alexandre N. Patenaude, Nathalie J. Baker, C. Scott 2016-03 text http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/511537/ https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/511537/1/Jackson.pdf http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/3/3/150669 en eng Royal Society https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/511537/1/Jackson.pdf Jackson, Jennifer A. orcid:0000-0003-4158-1924 Carroll, Emma L.; Smith, Tim D.; Zerbini, Alexandre N.; Patenaude, Nathalie J.; Baker, C. Scott. 2016 An integrated approach to historical population assessment of the great whales: case of the New Zealand southern right whale. Royal Society Open Science, 3 (3), 150669. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.150669 <https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.150669> cc_by_4 CC-BY Publication - Article PeerReviewed 2016 ftnerc https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.150669 2023-02-04T19:42:01Z 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. Different catch allocation scenarios are explored to account for uncertainty in the population's offshore distribution. From a pre-exploitation abundance of 28 800–47 100 whales, nineteenth century hunting reduced the population to approximately 30–40 mature females between 1914 and 1926. Today, it stands at less than 12% of pre-exploitation abundance. Despite the challenges of reconstructing historical catches and population boundaries, conservation efforts of historically exploited species benefit from targets for ecological restoration. Article in Journal/Newspaper Southern Right Whale Natural Environment Research Council: NERC Open Research Archive New Zealand Royal Society Open Science 3 3 150669 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
Natural Environment Research Council: NERC Open Research Archive |
op_collection_id |
ftnerc |
language |
English |
description |
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. Different catch allocation scenarios are explored to account for uncertainty in the population's offshore distribution. From a pre-exploitation abundance of 28 800–47 100 whales, nineteenth century hunting reduced the population to approximately 30–40 mature females between 1914 and 1926. Today, it stands at less than 12% of pre-exploitation abundance. Despite the challenges of reconstructing historical catches and population boundaries, conservation efforts of historically exploited species benefit from targets for ecological restoration. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Jackson, Jennifer A. Carroll, Emma L. Smith, Tim D. Zerbini, Alexandre N. Patenaude, Nathalie J. Baker, C. Scott |
spellingShingle |
Jackson, Jennifer A. Carroll, Emma L. Smith, Tim D. Zerbini, Alexandre N. Patenaude, Nathalie J. Baker, C. Scott An integrated approach to historical population assessment of the great whales: case of the New Zealand southern right whale |
author_facet |
Jackson, Jennifer A. Carroll, Emma L. Smith, Tim D. Zerbini, Alexandre N. Patenaude, Nathalie J. Baker, C. Scott |
author_sort |
Jackson, Jennifer A. |
title |
An integrated approach to historical population assessment of the great whales: case of the New Zealand southern right whale |
title_short |
An integrated approach to historical population assessment of the great whales: case of the New Zealand southern right whale |
title_full |
An integrated approach to historical population assessment of the great whales: case of the New Zealand southern right whale |
title_fullStr |
An integrated approach to historical population assessment of the great whales: case of the New Zealand southern right whale |
title_full_unstemmed |
An integrated approach to historical population assessment of the great whales: case of the New Zealand southern right whale |
title_sort |
integrated approach to historical population assessment of the great whales: case of the new zealand southern right whale |
publisher |
Royal Society |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/511537/ https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/511537/1/Jackson.pdf http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/3/3/150669 |
geographic |
New Zealand |
geographic_facet |
New Zealand |
genre |
Southern Right Whale |
genre_facet |
Southern Right Whale |
op_relation |
https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/511537/1/Jackson.pdf Jackson, Jennifer A. orcid:0000-0003-4158-1924 Carroll, Emma L.; Smith, Tim D.; Zerbini, Alexandre N.; Patenaude, Nathalie J.; Baker, C. Scott. 2016 An integrated approach to historical population assessment of the great whales: case of the New Zealand southern right whale. Royal Society Open Science, 3 (3), 150669. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.150669 <https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.150669> |
op_rights |
cc_by_4 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.150669 |
container_title |
Royal Society Open Science |
container_volume |
3 |
container_issue |
3 |
container_start_page |
150669 |
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1766208219882979328 |