Whales sustain fisheries: blue whales stimulate primary production in the Southern Ocean
It has previously been asserted that baleen whales compete with fisheries by consuming potentially harvestable marine resources. The regularly applied surplus-yield model suggests that whale prey becomes available to fisheries if whales are removed, and has been presented as a justification for whal...
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1111/mms.12108 http://ecite.utas.edu.au/93254 |
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ftunivtasecite:oai:ecite.utas.edu.au:93254 2023-05-15T15:37:11+02:00 Whales sustain fisheries: blue whales stimulate primary production in the Southern Ocean Lavery, TJ Roudnew, B Seymour, J Mitchell, JG Smetacek, V Nicol, S 2014 https://doi.org/10.1111/mms.12108 http://ecite.utas.edu.au/93254 en eng Soc Marine Mammalogy http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/mms.12108 Lavery, TJ and Roudnew, B and Seymour, J and Mitchell, JG and Smetacek, V and Nicol, S, Whales sustain fisheries: blue whales stimulate primary production in the Southern Ocean, Marine Mammal Science, 30, (3) pp. 888-904. ISSN 0824-0469 (2014) [Refereed Article] http://ecite.utas.edu.au/93254 Biological Sciences Ecology Marine and Estuarine Ecology (incl. Marine Ichthyology) Refereed Article PeerReviewed 2014 ftunivtasecite https://doi.org/10.1111/mms.12108 2019-12-13T21:56:04Z It has previously been asserted that baleen whales compete with fisheries by consuming potentially harvestable marine resources. The regularly applied surplus-yield model suggests that whale prey becomes available to fisheries if whales are removed, and has been presented as a justification for whaling. However, recent findings indicate that whales enhance ecosystem productivity by defecating iron that stimulates primary productivity in iron-limited waters. While juvenile whales and whales that are pregnant or lactating retain iron for growth and milk production, nonbreeding adult whales defecate most of the iron they consume. Here, we modify the surplus-yield model to incorporate iron defecation. After modeling a simplistic trajectory of blue whale recovery to historical abundances, the traditional surplus-yield model predicts that 10 11 kg of carbon yr −1 would become unavailable to fisheries. However, this ignores the nutrient recycling role of whales. Our model suggests the population of blue whales would defecate 3 10 6 kg of iron yr −1 , which would stimulate primary production equivalent to that required to support prey consumption by the blue whale population. Thus, modifying the surplus-yield model to include iron defecation indicates that blue whales do not render marine resources unavailable to fisheries. By defecating iron-rich feces, blue whales promote Southern Ocean productivity, rather than reducing fishery yields. Article in Journal/Newspaper baleen whales Blue whale Southern Ocean eCite UTAS (University of Tasmania) Southern Ocean Marine Mammal Science 30 3 888 904 |
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eCite UTAS (University of Tasmania) |
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ftunivtasecite |
language |
English |
topic |
Biological Sciences Ecology Marine and Estuarine Ecology (incl. Marine Ichthyology) |
spellingShingle |
Biological Sciences Ecology Marine and Estuarine Ecology (incl. Marine Ichthyology) Lavery, TJ Roudnew, B Seymour, J Mitchell, JG Smetacek, V Nicol, S Whales sustain fisheries: blue whales stimulate primary production in the Southern Ocean |
topic_facet |
Biological Sciences Ecology Marine and Estuarine Ecology (incl. Marine Ichthyology) |
description |
It has previously been asserted that baleen whales compete with fisheries by consuming potentially harvestable marine resources. The regularly applied surplus-yield model suggests that whale prey becomes available to fisheries if whales are removed, and has been presented as a justification for whaling. However, recent findings indicate that whales enhance ecosystem productivity by defecating iron that stimulates primary productivity in iron-limited waters. While juvenile whales and whales that are pregnant or lactating retain iron for growth and milk production, nonbreeding adult whales defecate most of the iron they consume. Here, we modify the surplus-yield model to incorporate iron defecation. After modeling a simplistic trajectory of blue whale recovery to historical abundances, the traditional surplus-yield model predicts that 10 11 kg of carbon yr −1 would become unavailable to fisheries. However, this ignores the nutrient recycling role of whales. Our model suggests the population of blue whales would defecate 3 10 6 kg of iron yr −1 , which would stimulate primary production equivalent to that required to support prey consumption by the blue whale population. Thus, modifying the surplus-yield model to include iron defecation indicates that blue whales do not render marine resources unavailable to fisheries. By defecating iron-rich feces, blue whales promote Southern Ocean productivity, rather than reducing fishery yields. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Lavery, TJ Roudnew, B Seymour, J Mitchell, JG Smetacek, V Nicol, S |
author_facet |
Lavery, TJ Roudnew, B Seymour, J Mitchell, JG Smetacek, V Nicol, S |
author_sort |
Lavery, TJ |
title |
Whales sustain fisheries: blue whales stimulate primary production in the Southern Ocean |
title_short |
Whales sustain fisheries: blue whales stimulate primary production in the Southern Ocean |
title_full |
Whales sustain fisheries: blue whales stimulate primary production in the Southern Ocean |
title_fullStr |
Whales sustain fisheries: blue whales stimulate primary production in the Southern Ocean |
title_full_unstemmed |
Whales sustain fisheries: blue whales stimulate primary production in the Southern Ocean |
title_sort |
whales sustain fisheries: blue whales stimulate primary production in the southern ocean |
publisher |
Soc Marine Mammalogy |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1111/mms.12108 http://ecite.utas.edu.au/93254 |
geographic |
Southern Ocean |
geographic_facet |
Southern Ocean |
genre |
baleen whales Blue whale Southern Ocean |
genre_facet |
baleen whales Blue whale Southern Ocean |
op_relation |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/mms.12108 Lavery, TJ and Roudnew, B and Seymour, J and Mitchell, JG and Smetacek, V and Nicol, S, Whales sustain fisheries: blue whales stimulate primary production in the Southern Ocean, Marine Mammal Science, 30, (3) pp. 888-904. ISSN 0824-0469 (2014) [Refereed Article] http://ecite.utas.edu.au/93254 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1111/mms.12108 |
container_title |
Marine Mammal Science |
container_volume |
30 |
container_issue |
3 |
container_start_page |
888 |
op_container_end_page |
904 |
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1766367650818031616 |