Historical summer distribution of the endangered North Atlantic right whale ( Eubalaena glacialis ): a hypothesis based on environmental preferences of a congeneric species

• Published in: Diversity and Distributions
• Main Authors: Monsarrat, Sophie, Pennino, Maria G., Smith, Tim D., Reeves, Randall R., Meynard, Christine, Kaplan, David M., Rodrigues, Ana S. L.
• Other Authors: Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive (CEFE), Université Paul-Valéry - Montpellier 3 (UPVM)-Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Centre international d'études supérieures en sciences agronomiques (Montpellier SupAgro)-École pratique des hautes études (EPHE), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université de Montpellier (UM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD France-Sud )-Institut national d’études supérieures agronomiques de Montpellier (Montpellier SupAgro), UMR 212 EME "écosystèmes marins exploités" (EME), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER)-Université de Montpellier (UM), World Whaling History, Okapi Wildlife Associates, Centre de Biologie pour la Gestion des Populations (UMR CBGP), Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad)-Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Centre international d'études supérieures en sciences agronomiques (Montpellier SupAgro)-Université de Montpellier (UM)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD France-Sud )-Institut national d’études supérieures agronomiques de Montpellier (Montpellier SupAgro), Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS), College of William and Mary Williamsburg (WM), The MORSE project funded this project (Agence Nationale de la Recherche, CEP&S 2011 – Project ANR-11-CEPL-006). This paper benefited from discussions with members of the CESAB (Center for Synthesis and Analysis of Biodiversity) PELAGIC project, financed by the "Fondation pour la diversité" (FRB) and the Fondation TOTAL., ANR-11-CEPL-0006,MORSE,Gestion de ressources marines sous des attendus changeants : amener la perspective historique dans la conservation de mammifères marins(2011)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2015
• Subjects: Boosted regression trees; historical distribution; right whale; whaling; Eubalaena; species distribution models; [SDV]Life Sciences [q-bio]; Greenland; Norway; Norwegian Sea; Pacific; Eubalaena glacialis; Iceland; Newfoundland; North Atlantic; North Atlantic right whale; Northern Norway
• Online Access: https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-02635200; https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.12314

International audience Aim To obtain a plausible hypothesis for the historical distribution of North Atlantic right whales (NARWs) (Eubalaena glacialis) in their summer feeding grounds. Previously widespread in the North Atlantic, after centuries of hunting, these whales survive as a small population off eastern North America. Because their exploitation began before formal records started, information about their historical distribution is fragmentary. Location North Atlantic and North Pacific oceans. Methods We linked historical records of North Pacific right whales ( E.japonica from 19th-century American whaling logbooks) with oceanographic data to generate a species distribution model. Assuming that the two species have similar environmental preferences, the model was projected into the North Atlantic to predict environmental suitability for NARWs. The reliability of these predictions was assessed by comparing the model results with historical and recent records in the North Atlantic. Results The model predicts suitable environmental conditions over a wide, mostly offshore band across the North Atlantic. Predictions are well supported by historical and recent records, but discrepancies in some areas indicate lower discriminative ability in coastal, shallow-depth areas, suggesting that this model mainly describes the summer offshore distribution of right whales. Main conclusions Our results suggest that the summer range of the NARW consisted of a relatively narrow band (width c.10 degrees in latitude), extending from the eastern coast of North America to northern Norway, over the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, south of Greenland and Iceland, north of the British Isles and in the Norwegian Sea. These results highlight possibilities for additional research both on the history of exploitation and on the current summer distribution of this species. In particular, better survey coverage of historical whaling grounds could help inform conservation efforts for this endangered species. More generally, this study ...