Presence of newborn humpback whale (<i>Megaptera novaeangliae</i>) calves in Gold Coast Bay, Australia

Torre-Williams, L; Martínez, Emmanuelle; Meynecke, Jan‐Olaf; Reinke, J.; Stockin, Karen A.

doi:10.1080/10236244.2019.1671769

Cited by 17 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…Using the Lord Howe seamount chain as a stepping stone, they crossed the Coral Sea to reach the East Australian coast south of the E1 Great Barrier Reef breeding grounds 30 . Whether these animals were seeking mating opportunities over the Australian coast is unknown as the southerly limits to the East Australian breeding grounds are now thought to extend beyond the Great Barrier Reef 78 . So far, photo and genetic identifications have shown few resights between the New Caledonian breeding sub-stock E2 and the Australian migratory corridor supposed to be used by the breeding stock E1 25,79 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Horizontal and vertical movements of humpback whales inform the use of critical pelagic habitats in the western South Pacific

Derville

Torres

Zerbini

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) are known for their nearshore distribution during the breeding season, but their pelagic habitat use patterns remain mostly unexplored. From 2016 to 2018, 18 humpback whales were equipped with depth-recording satellite tags (SPLASH10) to shed light on environmental and social drivers of seamount association around new caledonia in the western South Pacific. Movement paths were spatially structured around shallow seamounts (<200 m). Indeed, two males stopped over the Lord Howe seamount chain during the first-ever recorded longitudinal transit between New Caledonia and the east coast of Australia. Residence time significantly increased with proximity to shallow seamounts, while dive depth increased in the vicinity of seafloor ridges. Most of the 7,986 recorded dives occurred above 80 m (88.5%), but deep dives (>80 m, max 616 m) were also recorded (11.5%), including by maternal females. Deep dives often occurred in series and were characterized by U-shapes suggesting high energy expenditure. This study provides new insights into the formerly overlooked use of pelagic habitats by humpback whales during the breeding season. Given increasing anthropogenic threats on deep sea habitats worldwide, this work has implications for the conservation of vulnerable marine ecosystems.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Horizontal and vertical movements of humpback whales inform the use of critical pelagic habitats in the western South Pacific

Derville

Torres

Zerbini

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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“…Most research on the humpback whale aggregation areas along the E1 population migration route has focused primarily on the pod characteristics (Corkeron and Brown 1995;Franklin et al 2011) and migratory movements (Burns et al 2014) of the whales. Several recent studies have demonstrated that breeding and calving behaviours have occurred outside recognised habitat areas for humpback whale populations (Bruce et al 2014;Lucena et al 2016;Irvine et al 2018;Torre-Williams et al 2019;Valani et al 2020), underlining the need to further determine critical habitats, which we define as any habitat relevant for maintaining a stable population through feeding, breeding and resting.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Few behavioural studies have been conducted in this location to determine the use of the bay by humpback whales (Meynecke et al 2013;Reinke et al 2016;Valani et al 2020) and there is still limited knowledge about its exact function for socialisation and breeding. Recent research has demonstrated that parturition occurs outside the stated breeding grounds in the Great Barrier Reef, and evidence of newborn calves in the GCB suggests it is a suitable calving ground (Torre-Williams et al 2019;Valani et al 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The monitoring of Australian populations of humpback whales has increasingly been done through citizen science to find spatiotemporal and behavioural trends for this species (Bruce et al 2014;Thums et al 2018;Torre-Williams et al 2019), including in the GCB and Hervey Bay (Franklin et al 2011;Meynecke et al 2013;Valani et al 2020). Due to the limitations of systematic, long-term research (Silvertown 2009), large-scale ecological studies are difficult to facilitate, and even more so for migratory animals with a large spatial range (Dunn et al 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Citizen science can overcome these research challenges and be used to enable the continuous and largescale monitoring of humpback whale populations (Tonachella et al 2012). Citizen science has been used to capture various types of data on humpback whales, including abundance (Bertulli et al 2018;Pirotta et al 2020), distribution (Bruce et al 2014) and population dynamics (Franklin et al 2018;Torre-Williams et al 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Humpback whale (

McCulloch

Meynecke

Franklin

et al. 2021

Mar. Freshwater Res.

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Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) require a suite of essential habitats during their long migration. Therefore, the identification of critical habitats is important for continuation of their successful recovery. In this study we investigated the behaviours and habitat usage exhibited by humpback whales in two known aggregation sites on the east coast of Australia. Using a combined 5400 humpback whale records collected from Hervey Bay between 1999 and 2009 and from the Gold Coast Bay between 2011 and 2018, we analysed different types of behavioural categories. We found that humpback whales in Hervey Bay primarily exhibited surface travel and non-aggressive social behaviour, whereas both sites appeared to be similarly important for resting. Our results suggest that the Gold Coast Bay provides habitat for a wide range of critical humpback whale activities, in particular for resting mother-calf pairs, mature males seeking copulation and socialising immature whales. Hervey Bay had a higher number of mother-calf pair sightings, confirming the area as an important resting site. This study demonstrates that the two regions are critical habitats for humpback whales during their annual migration, but for different essential activities, and should be considered as a whale protection area.

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Evidence of humpback whale calving in south-west Western Australia

Jolliffe,

Russell,

McPherson

et al. 2024

Discov Anim

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An understanding of the spatial and temporal range of marine mammals, and identification of habitats that support critical behaviours is fundamental for effective species management and conservation. The humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae), while considered to be recovered in Australian waters, is subject to increasing levels of anthropogenic pressure across its migratory range. Historically, the Western Australian (WA) population has been known to calf in the north-west of WA in the Kimberley region (15–18° S), with recent records of calving extending as far south as Exmouth, Western Australia (21–22° S). This paper presents recent evidence of humpback whale calves being born over 1500 km further south in southwest WA (33–34° S), along their northern migratory route, including live sightings of neonates, and strandings of deceased neonate calves. The presence of neonates outside of known calving grounds presents challenges for species conservation and management with effective mitigation and management of anthropogenic pressures contingent on a contemporary understanding of species presence and behaviour. Further, there is considerable concern for the viability of calves this far south on their migratory route where water temperatures are cooler and sheltered areas for resting are more limited.

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Presence of newborn humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) calves in Gold Coast Bay, Australia

Cited by 17 publications

References 61 publications

Horizontal and vertical movements of humpback whales inform the use of critical pelagic habitats in the western South Pacific

Horizontal and vertical movements of humpback whales inform the use of critical pelagic habitats in the western South Pacific

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Evidence of humpback whale calving in south-west Western Australia

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