Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Habitat Selection in Female-Calf Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) Pairs on the Hawaiian Breeding Grounds
The Au'au Channel between the islands of Maui and Lanai, Hawaii comprises critical breeding habitat for humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) of the Central North Pacific stock. However, like many regions where marine mega-fauna gather, these waters are also the focus of a flourishing local...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:3362540 2023-05-15T16:35:54+02:00 Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Habitat Selection in Female-Calf Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) Pairs on the Hawaiian Breeding Grounds Cartwright, Rachel Gillespie, Blake LaBonte, Kristen Mangold, Terence Venema, Amy Eden, Kevin Sullivan, Matthew 2012-05-29 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3362540 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22666432 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0038004 en eng Public Library of Science http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3362540 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22666432 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0038004 Cartwright et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. CC-BY Research Article Text 2012 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0038004 2013-09-04T07:55:05Z The Au'au Channel between the islands of Maui and Lanai, Hawaii comprises critical breeding habitat for humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) of the Central North Pacific stock. However, like many regions where marine mega-fauna gather, these waters are also the focus of a flourishing local eco-tourism and whale watching industry. Our aim was to establish current trends in habitat preference in female-calf humpback whale pairs within this region, focusing specifically on the busy, eastern portions of the channel. We used an equally-spaced zigzag transect survey design, compiled our results in a GIS model to identify spatial trends and calculated Neu's Indices to quantify levels of habitat use. Our study revealed that while mysticete female-calf pairs on breeding grounds typically favor shallow, inshore waters, female-calf pairs in the Au'au Channel avoided shallow waters (<20 m) and regions within 2 km of the shoreline. Preferred regions for female-calf pairs comprised water depths between 40–60 m, regions of rugged bottom topography and regions that lay between 4 and 6 km from a small boat harbor (Lahaina Harbor) that fell within the study area. In contrast to other humpback whale breeding grounds, there was only minimal evidence of typical patterns of stratification or segregation according to group composition. A review of habitat use by maternal females across Hawaiian waters indicates that maternal habitat choice varies between localities within the Hawaiian Islands, suggesting that maternal females alter their use of habitat according to locally varying pressures. This ability to respond to varying environments may be the key that allows wildlife species to persist in regions where human activity and critical habitat overlap. Text Humpback Whale Megaptera novaeangliae PubMed Central (PMC) Boat Harbor ENVELOPE(-36.600,-36.600,-54.200,-54.200) Pacific PLoS ONE 7 5 e38004 |
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Research Article Cartwright, Rachel Gillespie, Blake LaBonte, Kristen Mangold, Terence Venema, Amy Eden, Kevin Sullivan, Matthew Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Habitat Selection in Female-Calf Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) Pairs on the Hawaiian Breeding Grounds |
topic_facet |
Research Article |
description |
The Au'au Channel between the islands of Maui and Lanai, Hawaii comprises critical breeding habitat for humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) of the Central North Pacific stock. However, like many regions where marine mega-fauna gather, these waters are also the focus of a flourishing local eco-tourism and whale watching industry. Our aim was to establish current trends in habitat preference in female-calf humpback whale pairs within this region, focusing specifically on the busy, eastern portions of the channel. We used an equally-spaced zigzag transect survey design, compiled our results in a GIS model to identify spatial trends and calculated Neu's Indices to quantify levels of habitat use. Our study revealed that while mysticete female-calf pairs on breeding grounds typically favor shallow, inshore waters, female-calf pairs in the Au'au Channel avoided shallow waters (<20 m) and regions within 2 km of the shoreline. Preferred regions for female-calf pairs comprised water depths between 40–60 m, regions of rugged bottom topography and regions that lay between 4 and 6 km from a small boat harbor (Lahaina Harbor) that fell within the study area. In contrast to other humpback whale breeding grounds, there was only minimal evidence of typical patterns of stratification or segregation according to group composition. A review of habitat use by maternal females across Hawaiian waters indicates that maternal habitat choice varies between localities within the Hawaiian Islands, suggesting that maternal females alter their use of habitat according to locally varying pressures. This ability to respond to varying environments may be the key that allows wildlife species to persist in regions where human activity and critical habitat overlap. |
format |
Text |
author |
Cartwright, Rachel Gillespie, Blake LaBonte, Kristen Mangold, Terence Venema, Amy Eden, Kevin Sullivan, Matthew |
author_facet |
Cartwright, Rachel Gillespie, Blake LaBonte, Kristen Mangold, Terence Venema, Amy Eden, Kevin Sullivan, Matthew |
author_sort |
Cartwright, Rachel |
title |
Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Habitat Selection in Female-Calf Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) Pairs on the Hawaiian Breeding Grounds |
title_short |
Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Habitat Selection in Female-Calf Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) Pairs on the Hawaiian Breeding Grounds |
title_full |
Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Habitat Selection in Female-Calf Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) Pairs on the Hawaiian Breeding Grounds |
title_fullStr |
Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Habitat Selection in Female-Calf Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) Pairs on the Hawaiian Breeding Grounds |
title_full_unstemmed |
Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Habitat Selection in Female-Calf Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) Pairs on the Hawaiian Breeding Grounds |
title_sort |
between a rock and a hard place: habitat selection in female-calf humpback whale (megaptera novaeangliae) pairs on the hawaiian breeding grounds |
publisher |
Public Library of Science |
publishDate |
2012 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3362540 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22666432 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0038004 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-36.600,-36.600,-54.200,-54.200) |
geographic |
Boat Harbor Pacific |
geographic_facet |
Boat Harbor Pacific |
genre |
Humpback Whale Megaptera novaeangliae |
genre_facet |
Humpback Whale Megaptera novaeangliae |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3362540 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22666432 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0038004 |
op_rights |
Cartwright et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0038004 |
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PLoS ONE |
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7 |
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5 |
container_start_page |
e38004 |
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