Abundance and Distribution of Harbor Porpoises and Other Cetaceans in the San Juan Channel: Tides and Bathymetry

• Main Author: Hayes, Kia R.
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: English
• Published: Friday Harbor Laboratories 2014
• Subjects: Harbor porpoise; Phocoena phocoena; Cetacean; Tides; Tidal Phase; Current Speed; Bathymetry; Species Composition; San Juan Channel; San Juan Archipelago; Salish Sea; Abundance; Distribution; San Juan
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1773/27604

The Salish Sea, an area of complex oceanography and bathymetry, supports a number of apex cetacean species. In the last decade, anomalous sightings of cetaceans have become more frequent and shifts in species abundance have occurred. This 2014 Pelagic Ecosystem Function (PEF) study, using large and fine scale surveys in the San Juan Channel (SJC), determined that cetacean mean density was unusually low but species composition was more diverse than previous years, perhaps due to anonymously warm surface water. The relationship between tides, bathymetry and harbor porpoise abundance at small scales were different than those found previously in the region.