New insights into seasonal foraging ranges and migrations of minke whales from the Salish Sea and coastal British Columbia.
In the Salish Sea and coastal waters of British Columbia, minke whales are known to establish small home ranges during the feeding season. Beyond the feeding season little is known of their movements or distribution. To determine movement patterns of minke whales in these waters we used photo-identi...
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ftwestwashington:oai:cedar.wwu.edu:ssec-1195 2023-05-15T17:12:51+02:00 New insights into seasonal foraging ranges and migrations of minke whales from the Salish Sea and coastal British Columbia. Towers, Jared R. McMillan, Christie Malleson, Mark Hildering, Jackie Ford, John K. B. Ellis, Graeme M. 2014-05-01T15:30:00Z application/pdf https://cedar.wwu.edu/ssec/2014ssec/Day2/69 https://cedar.wwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1195&context=ssec English eng Western CEDAR https://cedar.wwu.edu/ssec/2014ssec/Day2/69 https://cedar.wwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1195&context=ssec This resource is displayed for educational purposes only and may be subject to U.S. and international copyright laws. For more information about rights or obtaining copies of this resource, please contact University Archives, Heritage Resources, Western Libraries, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA 98225-9103, USA (360-650-7534; heritage.resources@wwu.edu) and refer to the collection name and identifier. Any materials cited must be attributed to the Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference Records, University Archives, Heritage Resources, Western Libraries, Western Washington University. Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology text 2014 ftwestwashington 2022-09-14T05:57:10Z In the Salish Sea and coastal waters of British Columbia, minke whales are known to establish small home ranges during the feeding season. Beyond the feeding season little is known of their movements or distribution. To determine movement patterns of minke whales in these waters we used photo-identification data that were collected opportunistically from 2005-2012. These data were from four non-overlapping areas between 48ºN and 53ºN. Despite year-round search effort, minke whales were only encountered between April and October. Most of the 44 unique minke whales identified in 405 encounters displayed fidelity to areas both within and among feeding seasons. Five of these individuals also made relatively large-scale intra-annual movements between areas on six occasions. They were documented to move up to at least 424km in a northerly direction early in the season and up to at least 398km in a southerly direction late in the season. We believe that the seasonal patterns of these movements provide new insight into the foraging ranges and migrations of individuals. Ecological markers provide further evidence that the minke whales we photographed undertake annual long distance migrations. Scars believed to be from cookiecutter shark bites were observed on 43 individuals and the majority of minke whales documented with good quality images each year had acquired new scars since the previous feeding season. Furthermore, the commensal barnacle Xenobalanus globicipitis was observed on three individuals. Since these sharks and barnacles are from warm waters, it can be inferred that they interacted with the minke whales at lower latitudes. These findings may have important implications for our understanding of minke whale populations in the Salish Sea and the management of this species in the North Pacific. Text minke whale Western Washington University: CEDAR (Contributing to Education through Digital Access to Research) Pacific |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Western Washington University: CEDAR (Contributing to Education through Digital Access to Research) |
op_collection_id |
ftwestwashington |
language |
English |
topic |
Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology |
spellingShingle |
Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology Towers, Jared R. McMillan, Christie Malleson, Mark Hildering, Jackie Ford, John K. B. Ellis, Graeme M. New insights into seasonal foraging ranges and migrations of minke whales from the Salish Sea and coastal British Columbia. |
topic_facet |
Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology |
description |
In the Salish Sea and coastal waters of British Columbia, minke whales are known to establish small home ranges during the feeding season. Beyond the feeding season little is known of their movements or distribution. To determine movement patterns of minke whales in these waters we used photo-identification data that were collected opportunistically from 2005-2012. These data were from four non-overlapping areas between 48ºN and 53ºN. Despite year-round search effort, minke whales were only encountered between April and October. Most of the 44 unique minke whales identified in 405 encounters displayed fidelity to areas both within and among feeding seasons. Five of these individuals also made relatively large-scale intra-annual movements between areas on six occasions. They were documented to move up to at least 424km in a northerly direction early in the season and up to at least 398km in a southerly direction late in the season. We believe that the seasonal patterns of these movements provide new insight into the foraging ranges and migrations of individuals. Ecological markers provide further evidence that the minke whales we photographed undertake annual long distance migrations. Scars believed to be from cookiecutter shark bites were observed on 43 individuals and the majority of minke whales documented with good quality images each year had acquired new scars since the previous feeding season. Furthermore, the commensal barnacle Xenobalanus globicipitis was observed on three individuals. Since these sharks and barnacles are from warm waters, it can be inferred that they interacted with the minke whales at lower latitudes. These findings may have important implications for our understanding of minke whale populations in the Salish Sea and the management of this species in the North Pacific. |
format |
Text |
author |
Towers, Jared R. McMillan, Christie Malleson, Mark Hildering, Jackie Ford, John K. B. Ellis, Graeme M. |
author_facet |
Towers, Jared R. McMillan, Christie Malleson, Mark Hildering, Jackie Ford, John K. B. Ellis, Graeme M. |
author_sort |
Towers, Jared R. |
title |
New insights into seasonal foraging ranges and migrations of minke whales from the Salish Sea and coastal British Columbia. |
title_short |
New insights into seasonal foraging ranges and migrations of minke whales from the Salish Sea and coastal British Columbia. |
title_full |
New insights into seasonal foraging ranges and migrations of minke whales from the Salish Sea and coastal British Columbia. |
title_fullStr |
New insights into seasonal foraging ranges and migrations of minke whales from the Salish Sea and coastal British Columbia. |
title_full_unstemmed |
New insights into seasonal foraging ranges and migrations of minke whales from the Salish Sea and coastal British Columbia. |
title_sort |
new insights into seasonal foraging ranges and migrations of minke whales from the salish sea and coastal british columbia. |
publisher |
Western CEDAR |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
https://cedar.wwu.edu/ssec/2014ssec/Day2/69 https://cedar.wwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1195&context=ssec |
geographic |
Pacific |
geographic_facet |
Pacific |
genre |
minke whale |
genre_facet |
minke whale |
op_source |
Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference |
op_relation |
https://cedar.wwu.edu/ssec/2014ssec/Day2/69 https://cedar.wwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1195&context=ssec |
op_rights |
This resource is displayed for educational purposes only and may be subject to U.S. and international copyright laws. For more information about rights or obtaining copies of this resource, please contact University Archives, Heritage Resources, Western Libraries, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA 98225-9103, USA (360-650-7534; heritage.resources@wwu.edu) and refer to the collection name and identifier. Any materials cited must be attributed to the Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference Records, University Archives, Heritage Resources, Western Libraries, Western Washington University. |
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1766069736216461312 |