Abundance and survival of Pacific humpback whales in a proposed critical habitat area
This research was funded through grants to Cetacealab and Gitga’at First Nation from Julie Walters and Sam Rose, and Fisheries and Oceans Canada (Cetacean Research Program, Species at Risk Program). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or prepar...
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ftstandrewserep:oai:research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk:10023/4054 2023-07-02T03:32:17+02:00 Abundance and survival of Pacific humpback whales in a proposed critical habitat area Ashe, Erin Wray, Janie Picard, Christopher R. Williams, Robert University of St Andrews. School of Biology 2013-09-16T08:31:01Z application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/10023/4054 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0075228 eng eng PLoS One Ashe , E , Wray , J , Picard , C R & Williams , R 2013 , ' Abundance and survival of Pacific humpback whales in a proposed critical habitat area ' , PLoS One , vol. 8 , no. 9 , e75228 . https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0075228 1932-6203 PURE: 69971802 PURE UUID: 5e40311b-ba55-41cf-9a1d-b8e30d483f79 Scopus: 84907299902 http://hdl.handle.net/10023/4054 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0075228 © 2013 Ashe 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. QL Zoology SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being QL Journal article 2013 ftstandrewserep https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0075228 2023-06-13T18:28:41Z This research was funded through grants to Cetacealab and Gitga’at First Nation from Julie Walters and Sam Rose, and Fisheries and Oceans Canada (Cetacean Research Program, Species at Risk Program). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) were hunted commercially in Canada's Pacific region until 1966. Depleted to an estimated 1,400 individuals throughout the North Pacific, humpback whales are listed as Threatened under Canada's Species at Risk Act (SARA) and Endangered under the US Endangered Species Act. We conducted an 8-year photo-identification study to monitor humpback whale usage of a coastal fjord system in British Columbia (BC), Canada that was recently proposed as candidate critical habitat for the species under SARA. This participatory research program built collaborations among First Nations, environmental non-governmental organizations and academics. The study site, including the territorial waters of Gitga'at First Nation, is an important summertime feeding destination for migratory humpback whales, but is small relative to the population's range. We estimated abundance and survivorship using mark-recapture methods using photographs of naturally marked individuals. Abundance of humpback whales in the region was large, relative to the site's size, and generally increased throughout the study period. The resulting estimate of adult survivorship (0.979, 95% CI: 0.914, 0.995) is at the high end of previously reported estimates. A high rate of resights provides new evidence for inter-annual site fidelity to these local waters. Habitat characteristics of our study area are considered ecologically significant and unique, and this should be considered as regulatory agencies consider proposals for high-volume crude oil and liquefied natural gas tanker traffic through the area. Monitoring population recovery of a highly mobile, migratory species is daunting for low-cost, ... Article in Journal/Newspaper First Nations Humpback Whale Megaptera novaeangliae University of St Andrews: Digital Research Repository British Columbia ENVELOPE(-125.003,-125.003,54.000,54.000) Canada Pacific PLoS ONE 8 9 e75228 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of St Andrews: Digital Research Repository |
op_collection_id |
ftstandrewserep |
language |
English |
topic |
QL Zoology SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being QL |
spellingShingle |
QL Zoology SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being QL Ashe, Erin Wray, Janie Picard, Christopher R. Williams, Robert Abundance and survival of Pacific humpback whales in a proposed critical habitat area |
topic_facet |
QL Zoology SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being QL |
description |
This research was funded through grants to Cetacealab and Gitga’at First Nation from Julie Walters and Sam Rose, and Fisheries and Oceans Canada (Cetacean Research Program, Species at Risk Program). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) were hunted commercially in Canada's Pacific region until 1966. Depleted to an estimated 1,400 individuals throughout the North Pacific, humpback whales are listed as Threatened under Canada's Species at Risk Act (SARA) and Endangered under the US Endangered Species Act. We conducted an 8-year photo-identification study to monitor humpback whale usage of a coastal fjord system in British Columbia (BC), Canada that was recently proposed as candidate critical habitat for the species under SARA. This participatory research program built collaborations among First Nations, environmental non-governmental organizations and academics. The study site, including the territorial waters of Gitga'at First Nation, is an important summertime feeding destination for migratory humpback whales, but is small relative to the population's range. We estimated abundance and survivorship using mark-recapture methods using photographs of naturally marked individuals. Abundance of humpback whales in the region was large, relative to the site's size, and generally increased throughout the study period. The resulting estimate of adult survivorship (0.979, 95% CI: 0.914, 0.995) is at the high end of previously reported estimates. A high rate of resights provides new evidence for inter-annual site fidelity to these local waters. Habitat characteristics of our study area are considered ecologically significant and unique, and this should be considered as regulatory agencies consider proposals for high-volume crude oil and liquefied natural gas tanker traffic through the area. Monitoring population recovery of a highly mobile, migratory species is daunting for low-cost, ... |
author2 |
University of St Andrews. School of Biology |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Ashe, Erin Wray, Janie Picard, Christopher R. Williams, Robert |
author_facet |
Ashe, Erin Wray, Janie Picard, Christopher R. Williams, Robert |
author_sort |
Ashe, Erin |
title |
Abundance and survival of Pacific humpback whales in a proposed critical habitat area |
title_short |
Abundance and survival of Pacific humpback whales in a proposed critical habitat area |
title_full |
Abundance and survival of Pacific humpback whales in a proposed critical habitat area |
title_fullStr |
Abundance and survival of Pacific humpback whales in a proposed critical habitat area |
title_full_unstemmed |
Abundance and survival of Pacific humpback whales in a proposed critical habitat area |
title_sort |
abundance and survival of pacific humpback whales in a proposed critical habitat area |
publishDate |
2013 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/4054 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0075228 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-125.003,-125.003,54.000,54.000) |
geographic |
British Columbia Canada Pacific |
geographic_facet |
British Columbia Canada Pacific |
genre |
First Nations Humpback Whale Megaptera novaeangliae |
genre_facet |
First Nations Humpback Whale Megaptera novaeangliae |
op_relation |
PLoS One Ashe , E , Wray , J , Picard , C R & Williams , R 2013 , ' Abundance and survival of Pacific humpback whales in a proposed critical habitat area ' , PLoS One , vol. 8 , no. 9 , e75228 . https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0075228 1932-6203 PURE: 69971802 PURE UUID: 5e40311b-ba55-41cf-9a1d-b8e30d483f79 Scopus: 84907299902 http://hdl.handle.net/10023/4054 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0075228 |
op_rights |
© 2013 Ashe 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_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0075228 |
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PLoS ONE |
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8 |
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9 |
container_start_page |
e75228 |
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1770271818078224384 |