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

• 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

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.