An autumn aggregation of fin ( Balaenoptera physalus ) and blue whales ( B. musculus ) in the Porcupine Seabight, southwest of Ireland

Baines, Mick; Reichelt, Maren; Griffin, Donal

doi:10.1016/j.dsr2.2017.03.007

Cited by 24 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…It travelled much further to the east, following the edge of the continental shelf north and west of the U.K., travelling closer to the European coast as it moved south to Portugal. This second whale stopped numerous times along its track, among other places at a site southwest of Ireland where blue and fin whales are known to congregate during autumn 26 . It is important to note that the frequency of the raw locations is different between these two tracks ( Fig.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Autumn movements of fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) from Svalbard, Norway, revealed by satellite tracking

Lydersen

Vacquié‐Garcia

Heide‐Jørgensen

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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Insight into animal movements is essential for understanding habitat use by individuals as well as population processes and species life-history strategies. In this study, we instrumented 25 fin whales with ARGOS satellite-transmitters in Svalbard, Norway, to study their movement patterns and behaviour (Area Restricted Search (ARS), transiting or unknown) during boreal autumn/early winter. Ten of the whales stayed in the tagging area (most northerly location: 81.68°N) for their entire tracking periods (max 45 days). The other 15 whales moved in a south-westerly direction; the longest track ended off the coast of northern Africa (> 5000 km from the tagging location) after 96 days. The whales engaged in ARS behaviour intermittently throughout their southward migrations. During transit phases the whales moved quickly; one individual maintained an average horizontal speed of 9.3 km/h (travelling 223 km per day) for a period of a week. This study documents that: (1) some fin whales might remain at high latitudes during winter; (2) the whales that do migrate probably feed along the way; (3) they can maintain high transiting speed for long periods and; (4) one breeding area for this species is likely located in deep, warm water some 100 km west of Morocco.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…2). Departures from Svalbard occurred between 10 September and 11 October (all whales tagged in 2019 left between [22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29]. During the Svalbard residency phase for all the whales 49 ± 7% of locations per individual were in ARS, 22 ± 6% in transit and behaviour at 29 ± 6% of the locations was classified as being in an uncertain state.…”

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confidence: 99%

Autumn movements of fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) from Svalbard, Norway, revealed by satellite tracking

Lydersen

Vacquié‐Garcia

Heide‐Jørgensen

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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“…In NW Spain, fin whales used to be caught on a feeding ground from July to October (Sanpera & Aguilar 1992) and recent population estimates for the Bay of Biscay are higher in the summer (Laran et al 2017). However, foraging whales have been observed around the Azores archipelago in spring (Visser et al 2011), then migrating to west Iceland and east Greenland feeding grounds in the summer (Silva et al 2013), while some whales feed in Irish waters from autumn to spring , Baines et al 2017. Future research should focus on where Gibraltar whales are going when they are not in the Strait, either through direct evidence such as matching photo-identification catalogues with other areas and deploying satellite tags, or indirectly by comparing genetic and isotopic data with neighboring populations.…”

Section: Author Copymentioning

confidence: 99%

Contemporary migration of fin whales through the Strait of Gibraltar

Gauffier¹,

Verborgh²,

Giménez³

et al. 2018

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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Fin whales Balaenoptera physalus used to be abundant in the Strait of Gibraltar and nearby Atlantic areas until their rapid collapse due to intense whaling at the beginning of the 20 th century. Recent studies seem to indicate that some fin whales, believed to belong to the North East North Atlantic (NENA) stock, now use the area to travel between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. In this study, we analyzed 15 yr of direct observations combining vessel and land-based surveys with photo-identification to characterize the migration of fin whales through the Strait. These combined observations provide a temporal and spatial analysis of the whales' movement patterns and behavioral activity. Our main findings suggest a migration of a small community of fin whales through the Strait of Gibraltar, with remarkable seasonal directionality. All whales travelled towards the Atlantic Ocean between May and October, and 69% towards the Mediterranean Sea between November and April. Observations of young whales exiting the Mediterranean Sea mainly between May and July suggest that at least part of this community is likely to calve in the basin. Due to the special sensitivity of the species to ship strikes and underwater noise, and the intense maritime traffic in the Strait of Gibraltar, we urge Spain and Morocco to cooperate through the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to ensure a safe crossing of these whales by the effective implementation and year-round extension of the existing recommendation of a seasonal vessel speed reduction to 13 knots.

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“…The northeast Atlantic population of blue whales is estimated to be small—only 1,000 individuals (Pike et al, 2009)—with foraging observed around Iceland and historically in the Norwegian and Barents Seas in summer months (Pike et al, 2009), and wintering in the upwelling systems between Mauritania and the Cape Verde Islands (Baines & Reichelt, 2014). Northward migrations may occur along mid-Atlantic corridors with peak sightings in the Azores in the spring (Silva et al, 2013), and southerly migrating blue whales are frequently detected in waters to the west of the UK between November and December (Baines, Reichelt & Griffin, 2017; Charif & Clark, 2009; Reeves et al, 2004; Visser et al, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Combining simulation modeling and stable isotope analyses to reconstruct the last known movements of one of Nature’s giants

Trueman

Jackson

Chadwick

et al. 2019

PeerJ

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The spatial ecology of rare, migratory oceanic animals is difficult to study directly. Where incremental tissues are available, their chemical composition can provide valuable indirect observations of movement and diet. Interpreting the chemical record in incremental tissues can be highly uncertain, however, as multiple mechanisms interact to produce the observed data. Simulation modeling is one approach for considering alternative hypotheses in ecology and can be used to consider the relative likelihood of obtaining an observed record under different combinations of ecological and environmental processes. Here we show how a simulation modeling approach can help to infer movement behaviour based on stable carbon isotope profiles measured in incremental baleen tissues of a blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus). The life history of this particular specimen, which stranded in 1891 in the UK, was selected as a case study due to its cultural significance as part of a permanent display at the Natural History Museum, London. We specifically tested whether measured variations in stable isotope compositions across the analysed baleen plate were more consistent with residency or latitudinal migrations. The measured isotopic record was most closely reproduced with a period of residency in sub-tropical waters for at least a full year followed by three repeated annual migrations between sub-tropical and high latitude regions. The latitudinal migration cycle was interrupted in the year prior to stranding, potentially implying pregnancy and weaning, but isotopic data alone cannot test this hypothesis. Simulation methods can help reveal movement information coded in the biochemical compositions of incremental tissues such as those archived in historic collections, and provides context and inferences that are useful for retrospective studies of animal movement, especially where other sources of individual movement data are sparse or challenging to validate.

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An autumn aggregation of fin ( Balaenoptera physalus ) and blue whales ( B. musculus ) in the Porcupine Seabight, southwest of Ireland

Cited by 24 publications

References 37 publications

Autumn movements of fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) from Svalbard, Norway, revealed by satellite tracking

Autumn movements of fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) from Svalbard, Norway, revealed by satellite tracking

Contemporary migration of fin whales through the Strait of Gibraltar

Combining simulation modeling and stable isotope analyses to reconstruct the last known movements of one of Nature’s giants

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