Dangerous dining: surface foraging of North Atlantic right whales increases risk of vessel collisions
North Atlantic right whales are critically endangered and, despite international protection from whaling, significant numbers die from collisions with ships. Large groups of right whales migrate to the coastal waters of New England during the late winter and early spring to feed in an area with larg...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:3259960 2023-05-15T17:28:43+02:00 Dangerous dining: surface foraging of North Atlantic right whales increases risk of vessel collisions Parks, Susan E. Warren, Joseph D. Stamieszkin, Karen Mayo, Charles A. Wiley, David 2012-02-23 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3259960 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21813549 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2011.0578 en eng The Royal Society http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3259960 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21813549 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2011.0578 This journal is © 2011 The Royal Society Conservation Biology Text 2012 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2011.0578 2013-09-04T01:22:20Z North Atlantic right whales are critically endangered and, despite international protection from whaling, significant numbers die from collisions with ships. Large groups of right whales migrate to the coastal waters of New England during the late winter and early spring to feed in an area with large numbers of vessels. North Atlantic right whales have the largest per capita record of vessel strikes of any large whale population in the world. Right whale feeding behaviour in Cape Cod Bay (CCB) probably contributes to risk of collisions with ships. In this study, feeding right whales tagged with archival suction cup tags spent the majority of their time just below the water's surface where they cannot be seen but are shallow enough to be vulnerable to ship strike. Habitat surveys show that large patches of right whale prey are common in the upper 5 m of the water column in CCB during spring. These results indicate that the typical spring-time foraging ecology of right whales may contribute to their high level of mortality from vessel collisions. The results of this study suggest that remote acoustic detection of prey aggregations may be a useful supplement to the management and conservation of right whales. Text North Atlantic PubMed Central (PMC) Biology Letters 8 1 57 60 |
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English |
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Conservation Biology |
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Conservation Biology Parks, Susan E. Warren, Joseph D. Stamieszkin, Karen Mayo, Charles A. Wiley, David Dangerous dining: surface foraging of North Atlantic right whales increases risk of vessel collisions |
topic_facet |
Conservation Biology |
description |
North Atlantic right whales are critically endangered and, despite international protection from whaling, significant numbers die from collisions with ships. Large groups of right whales migrate to the coastal waters of New England during the late winter and early spring to feed in an area with large numbers of vessels. North Atlantic right whales have the largest per capita record of vessel strikes of any large whale population in the world. Right whale feeding behaviour in Cape Cod Bay (CCB) probably contributes to risk of collisions with ships. In this study, feeding right whales tagged with archival suction cup tags spent the majority of their time just below the water's surface where they cannot be seen but are shallow enough to be vulnerable to ship strike. Habitat surveys show that large patches of right whale prey are common in the upper 5 m of the water column in CCB during spring. These results indicate that the typical spring-time foraging ecology of right whales may contribute to their high level of mortality from vessel collisions. The results of this study suggest that remote acoustic detection of prey aggregations may be a useful supplement to the management and conservation of right whales. |
format |
Text |
author |
Parks, Susan E. Warren, Joseph D. Stamieszkin, Karen Mayo, Charles A. Wiley, David |
author_facet |
Parks, Susan E. Warren, Joseph D. Stamieszkin, Karen Mayo, Charles A. Wiley, David |
author_sort |
Parks, Susan E. |
title |
Dangerous dining: surface foraging of North Atlantic right whales increases risk of vessel collisions |
title_short |
Dangerous dining: surface foraging of North Atlantic right whales increases risk of vessel collisions |
title_full |
Dangerous dining: surface foraging of North Atlantic right whales increases risk of vessel collisions |
title_fullStr |
Dangerous dining: surface foraging of North Atlantic right whales increases risk of vessel collisions |
title_full_unstemmed |
Dangerous dining: surface foraging of North Atlantic right whales increases risk of vessel collisions |
title_sort |
dangerous dining: surface foraging of north atlantic right whales increases risk of vessel collisions |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2012 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3259960 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21813549 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2011.0578 |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3259960 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21813549 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2011.0578 |
op_rights |
This journal is © 2011 The Royal Society |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2011.0578 |
container_title |
Biology Letters |
container_volume |
8 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
57 |
op_container_end_page |
60 |
_version_ |
1766121579828215808 |