The missing whales: Relevance of "struck and lost" rates for the impact assessment of historical whaling in the southwestern Atlantic Ocean
The massive impact that open-boat historical whaling (18th to 20th centuries) had on whale populations has been traditionally estimated from records of oil and baleen plate production. However, an unknown proportion of hunted whales were struck, wounded, eventually killed, but lost, and not included...
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Oxford University Press
2021
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ftnerc:oai:nora.nerc.ac.uk:529154 2023-05-15T17:59:25+02:00 The missing whales: Relevance of "struck and lost" rates for the impact assessment of historical whaling in the southwestern Atlantic Ocean Vighi, Morgana Borrell, Asuncion Jackson, Jennifer A. Carroll, Emma L. Pennino, Maria Grazia Aguilar, Alex 2021-01 text http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/529154/ https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/529154/1/fsaa205.pdf https://academic.oup.com/icesjms/advance-article/doi/10.1093/icesjms/fsaa205/6026100 en eng Oxford University Press https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/529154/1/fsaa205.pdf Vighi, Morgana; Borrell, Asuncion; Jackson, Jennifer A. orcid:0000-0003-4158-1924 Carroll, Emma L.; Pennino, Maria Grazia; Aguilar, Alex. 2021 The missing whales: Relevance of "struck and lost" rates for the impact assessment of historical whaling in the southwestern Atlantic Ocean. ICES Journal of Marine Science, 78 (1). 14-24. https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsaa205 <https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsaa205> Publication - Article PeerReviewed 2021 ftnerc https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsaa205 2023-02-04T19:51:30Z The massive impact that open-boat historical whaling (18th to 20th centuries) had on whale populations has been traditionally estimated from records of oil and baleen plate production. However, an unknown proportion of hunted whales were struck, wounded, eventually killed, but lost, and not included in these records, suggesting that whaling impact may be critically underestimated. Whaling logbooks provide a key source for assessing past catches and losses. Here, we extract detailed records of 19875 days of activity in the southwestern Atlantic Ocean from 255 logbooks of offshore whaling voyages. During the period considered (1776–1923), whalers first targeted southern right whales (Eubalaena australis, 2497 sightings and 658 catches), gradually substituted by sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus, 1157 sightings and 843 catches) after 1840. Loss rate factors, calculated to account for the number of “struck and lost” whales, decreased across time for both species, and were particularly high (ranging 1.09–1.6) for the southern right whale, whose population was drastically reduced by whaling, as compared to previous estimates based on rough catch records. Accurate accounting for these “lost” individuals is essential for reconstructing the impact of whaling on cetacean populations and for a proper assessment of their initial population size and demographic trends. Article in Journal/Newspaper Physeter macrocephalus Southern Right Whale Natural Environment Research Council: NERC Open Research Archive ICES Journal of Marine Science 78 1 14 24 |
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Open Polar |
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Natural Environment Research Council: NERC Open Research Archive |
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ftnerc |
language |
English |
description |
The massive impact that open-boat historical whaling (18th to 20th centuries) had on whale populations has been traditionally estimated from records of oil and baleen plate production. However, an unknown proportion of hunted whales were struck, wounded, eventually killed, but lost, and not included in these records, suggesting that whaling impact may be critically underestimated. Whaling logbooks provide a key source for assessing past catches and losses. Here, we extract detailed records of 19875 days of activity in the southwestern Atlantic Ocean from 255 logbooks of offshore whaling voyages. During the period considered (1776–1923), whalers first targeted southern right whales (Eubalaena australis, 2497 sightings and 658 catches), gradually substituted by sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus, 1157 sightings and 843 catches) after 1840. Loss rate factors, calculated to account for the number of “struck and lost” whales, decreased across time for both species, and were particularly high (ranging 1.09–1.6) for the southern right whale, whose population was drastically reduced by whaling, as compared to previous estimates based on rough catch records. Accurate accounting for these “lost” individuals is essential for reconstructing the impact of whaling on cetacean populations and for a proper assessment of their initial population size and demographic trends. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Vighi, Morgana Borrell, Asuncion Jackson, Jennifer A. Carroll, Emma L. Pennino, Maria Grazia Aguilar, Alex |
spellingShingle |
Vighi, Morgana Borrell, Asuncion Jackson, Jennifer A. Carroll, Emma L. Pennino, Maria Grazia Aguilar, Alex The missing whales: Relevance of "struck and lost" rates for the impact assessment of historical whaling in the southwestern Atlantic Ocean |
author_facet |
Vighi, Morgana Borrell, Asuncion Jackson, Jennifer A. Carroll, Emma L. Pennino, Maria Grazia Aguilar, Alex |
author_sort |
Vighi, Morgana |
title |
The missing whales: Relevance of "struck and lost" rates for the impact assessment of historical whaling in the southwestern Atlantic Ocean |
title_short |
The missing whales: Relevance of "struck and lost" rates for the impact assessment of historical whaling in the southwestern Atlantic Ocean |
title_full |
The missing whales: Relevance of "struck and lost" rates for the impact assessment of historical whaling in the southwestern Atlantic Ocean |
title_fullStr |
The missing whales: Relevance of "struck and lost" rates for the impact assessment of historical whaling in the southwestern Atlantic Ocean |
title_full_unstemmed |
The missing whales: Relevance of "struck and lost" rates for the impact assessment of historical whaling in the southwestern Atlantic Ocean |
title_sort |
missing whales: relevance of "struck and lost" rates for the impact assessment of historical whaling in the southwestern atlantic ocean |
publisher |
Oxford University Press |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/529154/ https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/529154/1/fsaa205.pdf https://academic.oup.com/icesjms/advance-article/doi/10.1093/icesjms/fsaa205/6026100 |
genre |
Physeter macrocephalus Southern Right Whale |
genre_facet |
Physeter macrocephalus Southern Right Whale |
op_relation |
https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/529154/1/fsaa205.pdf Vighi, Morgana; Borrell, Asuncion; Jackson, Jennifer A. orcid:0000-0003-4158-1924 Carroll, Emma L.; Pennino, Maria Grazia; Aguilar, Alex. 2021 The missing whales: Relevance of "struck and lost" rates for the impact assessment of historical whaling in the southwestern Atlantic Ocean. ICES Journal of Marine Science, 78 (1). 14-24. https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsaa205 <https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsaa205> |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsaa205 |
container_title |
ICES Journal of Marine Science |
container_volume |
78 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
14 |
op_container_end_page |
24 |
_version_ |
1766168219012300800 |