Very low numbers of endangered Oceania humpback whales seen in Fijian waters
Intensive commercial whaling caused significant declines in Southern Hemisphere humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) populations. In Fiji, land-based humpback whale surveys undertaken from 1956 to 1958 documented maximum weekly counts of more than 150 humpback whales in parts of the Bligh waters....
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ftunivnewengland:oai:rune.une.edu.au:1959.11/29537 2023-08-27T04:05:40+02:00 Very low numbers of endangered Oceania humpback whales seen in Fijian waters Miller, C School of Science and Technology orcid:0000-0002-6642-918X Batibasiga, A Sharma-Gounder, S Solomona, P 2015 https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/29537 en eng CSIRO Publishing 10.1071/SP15006 https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/29537 une:1959.11/29537 Bronze Conservation and Biodiversity Journal Article 2015 ftunivnewengland 2023-08-10T18:53:42Z Intensive commercial whaling caused significant declines in Southern Hemisphere humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) populations. In Fiji, land-based humpback whale surveys undertaken from 1956 to 1958 documented maximum weekly counts of more than 150 humpback whales in parts of the Bligh waters. These records provide an invaluable point of comparison to present-day observations as they occurred immediately prior to very large humpback whale catches in Antarctic waters to the south - and on potential migration routes - of humpback whales breeding in Fijian waters. We report here on a three-year (2010-2012) land-based survey also conducted in the Bligh waters during which a total of 33 individuals over 480 h were counted from Ovalau Island and 68 individuals over approximately 300 h were observed from Makogai Island. These findings suggest a large decrease in numbers of humpback whales seen in Fiji waters since commercial whaling operations. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Humpback Whale Megaptera novaeangliae Research UNE - University of New England at Armidale, NSW Australia Antarctic |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Research UNE - University of New England at Armidale, NSW Australia |
op_collection_id |
ftunivnewengland |
language |
English |
topic |
Conservation and Biodiversity |
spellingShingle |
Conservation and Biodiversity Miller, C School of Science and Technology orcid:0000-0002-6642-918X Batibasiga, A Sharma-Gounder, S Solomona, P Very low numbers of endangered Oceania humpback whales seen in Fijian waters |
topic_facet |
Conservation and Biodiversity |
description |
Intensive commercial whaling caused significant declines in Southern Hemisphere humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) populations. In Fiji, land-based humpback whale surveys undertaken from 1956 to 1958 documented maximum weekly counts of more than 150 humpback whales in parts of the Bligh waters. These records provide an invaluable point of comparison to present-day observations as they occurred immediately prior to very large humpback whale catches in Antarctic waters to the south - and on potential migration routes - of humpback whales breeding in Fijian waters. We report here on a three-year (2010-2012) land-based survey also conducted in the Bligh waters during which a total of 33 individuals over 480 h were counted from Ovalau Island and 68 individuals over approximately 300 h were observed from Makogai Island. These findings suggest a large decrease in numbers of humpback whales seen in Fiji waters since commercial whaling operations. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Miller, C School of Science and Technology orcid:0000-0002-6642-918X Batibasiga, A Sharma-Gounder, S Solomona, P |
author_facet |
Miller, C School of Science and Technology orcid:0000-0002-6642-918X Batibasiga, A Sharma-Gounder, S Solomona, P |
author_sort |
Miller, C |
title |
Very low numbers of endangered Oceania humpback whales seen in Fijian waters |
title_short |
Very low numbers of endangered Oceania humpback whales seen in Fijian waters |
title_full |
Very low numbers of endangered Oceania humpback whales seen in Fijian waters |
title_fullStr |
Very low numbers of endangered Oceania humpback whales seen in Fijian waters |
title_full_unstemmed |
Very low numbers of endangered Oceania humpback whales seen in Fijian waters |
title_sort |
very low numbers of endangered oceania humpback whales seen in fijian waters |
publisher |
CSIRO Publishing |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/29537 |
geographic |
Antarctic |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Humpback Whale Megaptera novaeangliae |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Humpback Whale Megaptera novaeangliae |
op_relation |
10.1071/SP15006 https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/29537 une:1959.11/29537 |
op_rights |
Bronze |
_version_ |
1775357407707267072 |