From the southern right whale hunting decline to the humpback whaling expansion: a review of whale catch records in the tropical western South Atlantic Ocean

Abstract

Historical catch records from whaling activity are crucial for assessments of whale populations. However, several gaps in the exploitation history for many populations from before the twentieth century create limitations that may lead to overestimates of the recovery of these populations. The history of modern whaling along the Brazilian coast is relatively well known. However, several questions relating to the pre‐modern period, during and before the nineteenth century, remain unanswered. For example, the level of exploitation of humpback whales Megaptera novaeangliae and southern right whales Eubalaena australis in this period is unknown. Pre‐modern whaling in Brazil began in 1602 and lasted until the 1920s. Whales were captured using manual harpoons from either rowing boats or sailing boats, and processed at land stations called ‘armações’. A review of the history and oil production of these stations indicates that substantial catches occurred. Pre‐modern whaling records also indicate the collapse of the southern right whale population in the western South Atlantic Ocean. Increasingly rare reports of sightings for the nineteenth century and the closing of the last armação in the breeding grounds off southern Brazil indicate that this population collapsed by 1830. Armações operating in north‐eastern Brazil remained active through the 1800s, and targeted humpback whales until modern whaling techniques were introduced in the early 1900s. It is estimated that between approximately 11000 and 32000 individuals of this species were captured at these coastal whaling stations from 1830 to 1924.

Whale distribution in a breeding area: spatial models of habitat use and abundance of western South Atlantic humpback whales

“…Abundance estimates presented here (14,264, CV = 0.084 for 2008 and 20,389, CV = 0.071 for 2012) provide additional confirmation that the WSA humpback whale population is growing (Zerbini et al 2011). A new population status assessment in the framework of Zerbini et al (2011) is currently underway, which will take the present results and new catch history data (Morais et al 2017) into account to provide an updated understanding of this population's recovery, more than four decades after whaling ceased in 1973 in this area.…”

“…Whales aggregate in coastal waters along the central and northeastern coasts of Brazil to mate and give birth before migrating to feeding areas (Martins et al 2001, Zerbini et al 2006. This population was severely exploited by whaling between the late nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries (Zerbini et al 2011;Morais et al 2017), to the point of near extinction in the 1950s, but has since been recovering (Andriolo et al 2010, Zerbini et al 2011, Bortolotto et al 2016a. The Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) lists the conservation status of this species as "Least Concern" (Reilly et al 2008).…”

Whale, Whale, Everywhere: Increasing Abundance of Western South Atlantic Humpback Whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) in Their Wintering Grounds

“…Breeding Stock A corresponds to the western South Atlantic (WSA) population, which inhabits the Brazilian coast during the winter breeding season [ 15 ] and migrates to feeding grounds near South Georgia and the South Sandwich islands in summer [ 16 , 17 ]. It has been estimated that this population was depleted to less than 4% of its pre-exploitation size by the mid-1950s as a result of extensive whaling activities in their breeding grounds, migratory routes and, primarily, feeding areas [ 3 , 4 , 18 , 19 ].…”

Primeira Avaliação Do Status De Conservação Dos Mamíferos Do Estado Da Bahia, Brasil

“…Estas características dificultam a recuperação das populações, mesmo quando as atividades que as colocaram em risco são minimizadas ou eliminadas. Um exemplo é o da população das baleias jubarte (Megaptera novaeangliae), que ainda não se recuperou totalmente mesmo após algumas décadas sem sofrer pressão de caça (Morais et al 2017).…”