Coastal Fronts Utilized by Migrating Humpback Whales, Megaptera novaeangliae, on the Gold Coast, Australia

Reinke, J.; Lemckert, Charles James; Meynecke, Jan Olaf

doi:10.2112/si75-111.1

Cited by 16 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 0 publications

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“…This lends further support to the idea that whales are following strong environmental gradients, or fronts, for navigation (Reinke et al. ). We propose the hypothesis that when the whales have a well‐defined physical gradient to follow, they do so.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

“…This is supported by observations from the Gold Coast Bay, where humpbacks have recently been found to favour areas with strong temperature gradients (Reinke et al. ). Together, these results support the idea of a nearshore range compression, where the whales’ range is essentially compressed by an inshore encroachment of the EAC edge (Meynecke and Meager ), guiding them into shallow water and increasing their likelihood of entanglement.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 70%

“…More recently, humpbacks have been found to associate with fine‐scale thermal fronts in the Gold Coast Bay (Reinke et al. ). We hypothesize that humpbacks in South‐east Queensland are using the EAC inner edge not as a foraging habitat, but rather as a navigational aid.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These methods highlighted the influence of the EAC core on humpback whale movements, but could not address the developing idea that humpbacks use broad‐scale environmental gradients, such as the edge of an ocean current, as navigational aids (Reinke et al. ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the Gold Coast Bay, humpback whales have been reported to show a preference for cooler water (Reinke et al. ). In contrast, our study supports the findings by Volep et al.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A current affair: entanglement of humpback whales in coastal shark‐control nets

Bolin

Schoeman

Pizà-Roca

et al. 2019

Remote Sens Ecol Conserv

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Shark‐control nets pose an entanglement risk to East Australian humpback whales during their annual northward and southward migrations between the Southern Ocean and the Coral Sea. Rates of whale entanglement exhibit seasonal and interannual variation, suggesting that an understanding of the influence of variability in the broad‐scale physical environment along the migratory route would be useful in assessing risk of entanglement. This study provides a quantitative spatio‐temporal analysis of the probability of whale entanglement in shark‐control nets relative to the position and characteristics of the East Australian Current (EAC), the dominant oceanographic feature of the region. We use satellite‐derived sea‐surface temperature, and outputs from a data‐assimilating ocean model, to develop multivariate, data‐driven algorithms for detecting the edge of the EAC using Principal Components Analysis. We use outputs from these algorithms to model the likelihood of humpback entanglements in South‐east Queensland. We find that the likelihood of entanglement increases when the EAC edge is locally less structured and closer to shore in the vicinity of the corresponding net, or when the EAC is well resolved over the entire study domain. Our results suggest that migrating humpbacks use the gradient in physical characteristics that marks the EAC inner edge as a navigational aid. Thus, when the EAC inner edge encroaches on the coast, the whales’ migration range is compressed into nearshore waters, increasing the risk of entanglement. Our findings can help predict periods of elevated entanglement risk, which could underpin a more data‐driven approach to the management of shark‐control programs, and other activities that involve static fishing gear.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 70%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the Gold Coast Bay, humpback whales have been reported to show a preference for cooler water (Reinke et al. ). In contrast, our study supports the findings by Volep et al.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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