Abundance and distribution of sperm whales in the Canary Islands:can sperm whales in the Archipelago sustain the current level of ship-strike mortalities?

• Published in: PLOS ONE
• Main Authors: Fais, Andrea, Lewis, Tim P., Zitterbart, Daniel P., Álvarez, Omar, Tejedor, Ana, Aguilar de Soto, Natacha
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: Lanes; North Atlantic; Sperm whale
• Online Access: https://risweb.st-andrews.ac.uk/portal/en/researchoutput/abundance-and-distribution-of-sperm-whales-in-the-canary-islands(5e1134d1-ac7b-4344-963c-927e326233b1).html; https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0150660; https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/bitstream/10023/8618/1/deSoto_Ship_strikeMortalities_PLoSONE_CC.pdf

Sperm whales are present in the Canary Islands year-round, suggesting that the archipelago is an important area for this species in the North Atlantic. However, the area experiences one of the highest reported rates of sperm whale ship-strike in the world. Here we investigate if the number of sperm...