Feeding grounds of the eastern South Pacific humpback whale population include the South Orkney Islands

This paper reports on two photo-identified humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) that were sighted in different years in the proximity of the South Orkney Islands, at the boundary between the Scotia and Weddell seas(60854.5?S*46840.4?W and 60842.6?S*45833?W). One of the whales had been previously...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Polar Research
Main Authors: Rosa, Luciano Dalla, Félix, Fernando, Stevick, Peter, Secchi, Eduardo Resende, Allen, Judith, Chater, Kim, Martin, Anthony Richard, Bassoi, Manuela
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2012
Subjects:
Humpback whale
Photo-identification
Breeding stocks
Migration
South Orkney Islands
Southern Ocean
Antarctic
Antarctic Peninsula
Bransfield Strait
Pacific
Weddell
Antarc*
Humpback Whale
Megaptera novaeangliae
Polar Research
Online Access:http://repositorio.furg.br/handle/1/3440
https://doi.org/10.3402/polar.v31i0.17324
Description
Summary:This paper reports on two photo-identified humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) that were sighted in different years in the proximity of the South Orkney Islands, at the boundary between the Scotia and Weddell seas(60854.5?S*46840.4?W and 60842.6?S*45833?W). One of the whales had been previously sighted off Ecuador, a breeding ground for the eastern South Pacific population. The other whale was subsequently resighted in Bransfield Strait, off the western Antarctic Peninsula, a well-documented feeding ground for the same population. These matches give support to a hypothesis that the area south of the South Orkney Islands is occupied by whales from the eastern South Pacific breeding stock. Consequently, we propose 408W as a new longitudinal boundary between the feeding grounds associated with the eastern South Pacific and western South Atlantic breeding stocks.

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