RELATING MARINE MAMMAL DISTRIBUTION TO PREY ABUNDANCE
Marine mammal foraging and diet in southern New England is not well known and has therefore been largely ignored as a component of habitat, distribution, and bycatch. Incorporating prey components into marine mammal management is key to improving management of these species, especially as fisheries...
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ftunivrhodeislan:oai:digitalcommons.uri.edu:oa_diss-1909 2023-07-30T04:03:20+02:00 RELATING MARINE MAMMAL DISTRIBUTION TO PREY ABUNDANCE Orphanides, Christopher D. 2019-01-01T08:00:00Z application/pdf https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/oa_diss/895 https://doi.org/10.23860/diss-orphanides-christopher-2019 https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/context/oa_diss/article/1909/viewcontent/Orphanides_uri_0186A_12273.pdf unknown DigitalCommons@URI https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/oa_diss/895 doi:10.23860/diss-orphanides-christopher-2019 https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/context/oa_diss/article/1909/viewcontent/Orphanides_uri_0186A_12273.pdf Open Access Dissertations text 2019 ftunivrhodeislan https://doi.org/10.23860/diss-orphanides-christopher-2019 2023-07-17T18:58:38Z Marine mammal foraging and diet in southern New England is not well known and has therefore been largely ignored as a component of habitat, distribution, and bycatch. Incorporating prey components into marine mammal management is key to improving management of these species, especially as fisheries management progresses towards ecosystem-based management, climate change results in shifting distributions of marine mammals, and we are faced with new management challenges stemming from offshore wind development. This dissertation aims to address data gaps for species highly impacted by human activities, specifically the North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) and the harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena), and a suite of species along the continental shelf break that may be subject to future offshore energy development. The first chapter assesses harbor porpoise diet in southern New England, an area of recently increased bycatch where no diet information was previously available. The results of this study could be incorporated into ecosystem-based management, assess likely shifts in habitat due to climate changes, and inform future bycatch management regulations. For this study we examined stomach contents from 46 bycaught harbor porpoises collected over 24 years (1994-2017) between January and May on the continental shelf south of New England. Clupeids, true hakes (Urophycis), cephalopods, and silver hake (Merluccius bilinearis) constituted 85.5% of all estimated biomass, while cusk eels (Ophidiidea) and small flatfish (Pleuronectiformes) were frequently consumed (found in 29.8% and 27.7% of all stomach samples), but each made up less than 1% of estimated biomass due to their small size. Porpoises were found to preferentially select their prey by size and species, overlapping little with gillnet catch, and average prey size was larger for larger porpoise, females, and during the first half of our study (1994-2006 compared to 2007-2017). The second chapter investigated North Atlantic right whale prey choices ... Text Eubalaena glacialis North Atlantic North Atlantic right whale Phocoena phocoena University of Rhode Island: DigitalCommons@URI Hake ENVELOPE(15.612,15.612,66.797,66.797) |
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Open Polar |
collection |
University of Rhode Island: DigitalCommons@URI |
op_collection_id |
ftunivrhodeislan |
language |
unknown |
description |
Marine mammal foraging and diet in southern New England is not well known and has therefore been largely ignored as a component of habitat, distribution, and bycatch. Incorporating prey components into marine mammal management is key to improving management of these species, especially as fisheries management progresses towards ecosystem-based management, climate change results in shifting distributions of marine mammals, and we are faced with new management challenges stemming from offshore wind development. This dissertation aims to address data gaps for species highly impacted by human activities, specifically the North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) and the harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena), and a suite of species along the continental shelf break that may be subject to future offshore energy development. The first chapter assesses harbor porpoise diet in southern New England, an area of recently increased bycatch where no diet information was previously available. The results of this study could be incorporated into ecosystem-based management, assess likely shifts in habitat due to climate changes, and inform future bycatch management regulations. For this study we examined stomach contents from 46 bycaught harbor porpoises collected over 24 years (1994-2017) between January and May on the continental shelf south of New England. Clupeids, true hakes (Urophycis), cephalopods, and silver hake (Merluccius bilinearis) constituted 85.5% of all estimated biomass, while cusk eels (Ophidiidea) and small flatfish (Pleuronectiformes) were frequently consumed (found in 29.8% and 27.7% of all stomach samples), but each made up less than 1% of estimated biomass due to their small size. Porpoises were found to preferentially select their prey by size and species, overlapping little with gillnet catch, and average prey size was larger for larger porpoise, females, and during the first half of our study (1994-2006 compared to 2007-2017). The second chapter investigated North Atlantic right whale prey choices ... |
format |
Text |
author |
Orphanides, Christopher D. |
spellingShingle |
Orphanides, Christopher D. RELATING MARINE MAMMAL DISTRIBUTION TO PREY ABUNDANCE |
author_facet |
Orphanides, Christopher D. |
author_sort |
Orphanides, Christopher D. |
title |
RELATING MARINE MAMMAL DISTRIBUTION TO PREY ABUNDANCE |
title_short |
RELATING MARINE MAMMAL DISTRIBUTION TO PREY ABUNDANCE |
title_full |
RELATING MARINE MAMMAL DISTRIBUTION TO PREY ABUNDANCE |
title_fullStr |
RELATING MARINE MAMMAL DISTRIBUTION TO PREY ABUNDANCE |
title_full_unstemmed |
RELATING MARINE MAMMAL DISTRIBUTION TO PREY ABUNDANCE |
title_sort |
relating marine mammal distribution to prey abundance |
publisher |
DigitalCommons@URI |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/oa_diss/895 https://doi.org/10.23860/diss-orphanides-christopher-2019 https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/context/oa_diss/article/1909/viewcontent/Orphanides_uri_0186A_12273.pdf |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(15.612,15.612,66.797,66.797) |
geographic |
Hake |
geographic_facet |
Hake |
genre |
Eubalaena glacialis North Atlantic North Atlantic right whale Phocoena phocoena |
genre_facet |
Eubalaena glacialis North Atlantic North Atlantic right whale Phocoena phocoena |
op_source |
Open Access Dissertations |
op_relation |
https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/oa_diss/895 doi:10.23860/diss-orphanides-christopher-2019 https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/context/oa_diss/article/1909/viewcontent/Orphanides_uri_0186A_12273.pdf |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.23860/diss-orphanides-christopher-2019 |
_version_ |
1772814323908870144 |