Humpback whales feed on hatchery-released juvenile salmon
Humpback whales are remarkable for the behavioural plasticity of their feeding tactics and the diversity of their diets. Within the last decade at hatchery release sites in Southeast Alaska, humpback whales have begun exploiting juvenile salmon, a previously undocumented prey. The anthropogenic sour...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:5541540 2023-05-15T16:36:02+02:00 Humpback whales feed on hatchery-released juvenile salmon Chenoweth, Ellen M. Straley, Janice M. McPhee, Megan V. Atkinson, Shannon Reifenstuhl, Steve 2017-07-12 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5541540/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28791145 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.170180 en eng The Royal Society Publishing http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5541540/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28791145 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.170180 © 2017 The Authors. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. CC-BY Biology (Whole Organism) Text 2017 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.170180 2017-08-13T00:15:44Z Humpback whales are remarkable for the behavioural plasticity of their feeding tactics and the diversity of their diets. Within the last decade at hatchery release sites in Southeast Alaska, humpback whales have begun exploiting juvenile salmon, a previously undocumented prey. The anthropogenic source of these salmon and their important contribution to local fisheries makes the emergence of humpback whale predation a concern for the Southeast Alaska economy. Here, we describe the frequency of observing humpback whales, examine the role of temporal and spatial variables affecting the probability of sighting humpback whales and describe prey capture behaviours at five hatchery release sites. We coordinated twice-daily 15 min observations during the spring release seasons 2010–2015. Using logistic regression, we determined that the probability of occurrence of humpback whales increased after releases began and decreased after releases concluded. The probability of whale occurrence varied among release sites but did not increase significantly over the 6 year study period. Whales were reported to be feeding on juvenile chum, Chinook and coho salmon, with photographic and video records of whales feeding on coho salmon. The ability to adapt to new prey sources may be key to sustaining their population in a changing ocean. Text Humpback Whale Alaska PubMed Central (PMC) Royal Society Open Science 4 7 170180 |
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PubMed Central (PMC) |
op_collection_id |
ftpubmed |
language |
English |
topic |
Biology (Whole Organism) |
spellingShingle |
Biology (Whole Organism) Chenoweth, Ellen M. Straley, Janice M. McPhee, Megan V. Atkinson, Shannon Reifenstuhl, Steve Humpback whales feed on hatchery-released juvenile salmon |
topic_facet |
Biology (Whole Organism) |
description |
Humpback whales are remarkable for the behavioural plasticity of their feeding tactics and the diversity of their diets. Within the last decade at hatchery release sites in Southeast Alaska, humpback whales have begun exploiting juvenile salmon, a previously undocumented prey. The anthropogenic source of these salmon and their important contribution to local fisheries makes the emergence of humpback whale predation a concern for the Southeast Alaska economy. Here, we describe the frequency of observing humpback whales, examine the role of temporal and spatial variables affecting the probability of sighting humpback whales and describe prey capture behaviours at five hatchery release sites. We coordinated twice-daily 15 min observations during the spring release seasons 2010–2015. Using logistic regression, we determined that the probability of occurrence of humpback whales increased after releases began and decreased after releases concluded. The probability of whale occurrence varied among release sites but did not increase significantly over the 6 year study period. Whales were reported to be feeding on juvenile chum, Chinook and coho salmon, with photographic and video records of whales feeding on coho salmon. The ability to adapt to new prey sources may be key to sustaining their population in a changing ocean. |
format |
Text |
author |
Chenoweth, Ellen M. Straley, Janice M. McPhee, Megan V. Atkinson, Shannon Reifenstuhl, Steve |
author_facet |
Chenoweth, Ellen M. Straley, Janice M. McPhee, Megan V. Atkinson, Shannon Reifenstuhl, Steve |
author_sort |
Chenoweth, Ellen M. |
title |
Humpback whales feed on hatchery-released juvenile salmon |
title_short |
Humpback whales feed on hatchery-released juvenile salmon |
title_full |
Humpback whales feed on hatchery-released juvenile salmon |
title_fullStr |
Humpback whales feed on hatchery-released juvenile salmon |
title_full_unstemmed |
Humpback whales feed on hatchery-released juvenile salmon |
title_sort |
humpback whales feed on hatchery-released juvenile salmon |
publisher |
The Royal Society Publishing |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5541540/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28791145 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.170180 |
genre |
Humpback Whale Alaska |
genre_facet |
Humpback Whale Alaska |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5541540/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28791145 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.170180 |
op_rights |
© 2017 The Authors. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.170180 |
container_title |
Royal Society Open Science |
container_volume |
4 |
container_issue |
7 |
container_start_page |
170180 |
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1766026350769995776 |