No abstract

Predator diets are largely influenced by prey availability and abundance. Yet, in heterogenous marine environments, identifying the prey species consumed by diving mammals remains a fundamental challenge. For rorqual whales, the energetic constraints of prey engulfment require that the whales seek areas of high prey abundance and execute discrete lunge feeding events on patches of high‐density prey. Prey occurrences in feces should therefore provide meaningful insight into the dominant taxa in food patches selected by the animal. We investigated the prey consumed by humpback whales in three regions in southern British Columbia (BC), Canada, using opportunistic fecal sampling, microscopy, and DNA metabarcoding of 14 fecal samples. Fish including Pacific herring ( Clupea pallasii ), hake ( Merluccius productus ), and eulachon ( Thaleichthys pacificus ) were the most common fish species potentially targeted by humpback whales in two regions. The krill Euphausia pacifica was the most prevalent invertebrate DNA detected in all three regions, while sergestid and mysid shrimp may also be important. High DNA read abundances from walleye pollock ( Gadus chalcogrammus ) and sablefish ( Anoplopoma fimbria ) were also recovered in one sample each, suggesting that juveniles of these semi‐pelagic species may occasionally be targeted. In general, we observed heavily digested fecal material that drove substantial dissimilarities in taxonomic resolution between polymerase chain reaction‐based and morphological analyses of the feces. Pacific herring and walleye pollock were the only prey species confirmed by both methods. Our results highlight that molecular and visual analyses of fecal samples provide a complementary approach to diet analysis, with each method providing unique insight into prey diversity.

Abstract:In British Columbia, expanding sea otter (Enhydra lutris) populations are creating concerns among commercial harvesters about the potential predation impacts on exploitable geoduck clam (Panopea abrupta) stocks. We analysed fishery-independent surveys of exploited geoduck clam populations along a gradient of sea otter occupancy on the west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada to assess relationships between otter presence, commercial fishery removals of geoduck, and geoduck population demographics. Geoduck mean density, age composition, and estimated total mortality were influenced by a combination of variables, and therefore, we could not differentiate among geoduck populations according to sea otter presence or absence alone. As expected, we found a strong association between commercial fishery removals and geoduck clam total mortality rates. In contrast, the local numbers of sea otters were not an important factor affecting geoduck total mortality. A more balanced study design and greater sampling intensity would increase the power to detect whether sea otter predation affects harvestable geoduck stocks. Also, knowledge of the consumption rate by sea otters of geoduck throughout the year, in combination with survey data of unfished geoduck populations, would facilitate better prediction of how geoduck clam mortality rates might change as sea otters re-colonise new areas.

Subsurface foraging is an important proportion of the activity budget of rorqual whales, yet information on their behaviour underwater remains challenging to obtain. Rorquals are assumed to feed throughout the water column and to select prey as a function of depth, availability and density, but there remain limitations in the precise identification of targeted prey. Current data on rorqual foraging in western Canadian waters have thus been limited to observations of prey species amenable to surface feeding, such as euphausiids and Pacific herring (Clupea pallasii), with no information on deeper alternative prey sources. We measured the foraging behaviour of a humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) in Juan de Fuca Strait, British Columbia, using three complimentary methods: whale-borne tag data, acoustic prey mapping, and fecal sub-sampling. Acoustically detected prey layers were near the seafloor and consistent with dense schools of walleye pollock (Gadus chalcogrammus) distributed above more diffuse aggregations of pollock. Analysis of a fecal sample from the tagged whale confirmed that it had been feeding on pollock. Integrating the dive profile with the prey data revealed that the whale’s foraging effort followed the general pattern of areal prey density, wherein the whale had a higher lunge-feeding rate at the highest prey abundance and stopped feeding when prey became limited. Our findings of a humpback whale feeding on seasonally energy-dense fish like walleye pollock, which are potentially abundant in British Columbia, suggests that pollock may be an important prey source for this rapidly growing whale population. This result is informative when assessing regional fishing activities for semi-pelagic species as well as the whales’ vulnerability to fishing gear entanglements and feeding disturbances during a narrow window of prey acquisition.