Repatriation of a historical North Atlantic right whale habitat during an era of rapid climate change

O’Brien, Orfhlaith; Pendleton, Daniel E.; Ganley, Laura C.; McKenna, Katherine; Kenney, Robert D.; Quintana‐Rizzo, Ester; Mayo, Charles A.; Kraus, Scott D.; Redfern, Jessica V.

doi:10.1038/s41598-022-16200-8

Cited by 17 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 57 publications

(95 reference statements)

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“…While some of the recent shifts in right whale detections have been described in the literature, including in Cape Cod Bay (Mayo et al 2018; Charif et al 2020), Southern New England (Quintana‐Rizzo et al 2021; O'Brien et al 2022), the Great South Channel (Record et al 2019), Bay of Fundy (Davies et al 2019; Record et al 2019), and the Gulf of St. Lawrence (Simard et al 2019, Crowe et al 2021), this is the first attempt to broadly characterize new seasonal habitat‐use patterns across the core right whale range. This synoptic analysis provides the opportunity to connect emerging patterns of habitat use in one region with changes occurring in another region.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Redefining North Atlantic right whale habitat‐use patterns under climate change

Meyer‐Gutbrod

Davies

Johnson

et al. 2022

Limnology & Oceanography

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Changes in the physical oceanography of the Northwest Atlantic stemming from both natural and anthropogenic climate change impact the foraging ecology and distribution of endangered North Atlantic right whales. In this study, right whale sightings from 1990 to 2018 were analyzed to examine decadal patterns in monthly habitat use in 12 high-use areas. Depth-integrated abundances of late-stage Calanus finmarchicus and Calanus hyperboreus were also analyzed for decadal variations in the right whale foraging habitats. There were significant differences in the occurrence, seasonal timing, and persistence of foraging habitats across these three decades. In the decades of the 1990s and the 2010s, prey was less abundant than in the 2000s, corresponding to reduced use of the Southeast US calving grounds in the winter, increased use of Cape Cod Bay in winter and spring, and reduced use of Roseway Basin in the fall. In the 2010s, right whale sightings increased in Southern New England and the Gulf of St. Lawrence in the spring and summer, respectively. Summertime declines in the 2010s in late-stage copepod abundances in the Gulf of Maine and surrounding regions, as well as in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, indicate that recent increased use of the Gulf of St. Lawrence is driven by a decline in prey in traditional foraging habitats rather than by an increase in prey in the new foraging habitat. This analysis of decadal-scale differences in right whale sightings and prey abundance is critical for redefining right whale distribution patterns for the most recent (post-2010) decade.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Redefining North Atlantic right whale habitat‐use patterns under climate change

Meyer‐Gutbrod

Davies

Johnson

et al. 2022

Limnology & Oceanography

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“…These drifts in temporal and spatial distribution of prey may in turn drive changes in the presence and/or density of marine apex predators such as baleen whales (Ramp et al, 2015), leading to previously undocumented sightings and aggregations in some areas (Askin et al, 2017;Findlay et al, 2017;Giardino et al, 2022;Insley et al, 2021;Zein and Haugum, 2018). These range-shifts in humpback whales may lead to a local increase in whale presence over time, although this may not necessarily be linked to an increase in population size (O'Brien et al, 2022). Population monitoring at regional levels should be maintained, in addition to joint efforts and international collaboration between research groups, environmental NGOs and citizen scientists in order to monitor humpback population trends in the North Atlantic Ocean.…”

Section: Humpback Whale Abundance In Irelandmentioning

confidence: 99%

Abundance estimates of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) in Irish coastal waters using mark-recapture and citizen science

Blázquez,

Massett,

Whooley

et al. 2023

jcrm

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Abundance estimates are crucial for implementing effective conservation measures for large marine megafauna – particularly cetaceans. When combined with robust research methodologies, citizen science can provide a very useful tool to monitor large baleen whale populations, especially given their migratory nature, with individuals covering large areas typically exceeding the capacity of single research teams. The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group has been collecting humpback whale photo‐ID data in the inshore waters of Ireland since 1999. The Group curates a catalogue that contained 120 individual humpback whales up to 2022. Most of these data were obtained through citizen science and the catalogue was built following robust methodologies and strict data‐quality protocols. We used this photo‐ID catalogue to derive the first comprehensive abundance estimates for the species in Irish waters using mark‐recapture modelling techniques. We applied two approaches: (1) open population maximum likelihood mark‐recapture models based on the POPAN formulation; (2) a multi‐site mark‐recapture model selection framework based on Bayesian inference. The first method yielded a humpback whale superpopulation size of 154 ± 9 (95% CI = 138–172, CV = 0.06) between 1999–2022, with annual abundance ranging between 2 ± 1 and 77 ± 8 individuals. The second approach provided annual abundance estimates from 3 ± 2 to 76 ± 11 for the same period. This study supports the idea of an increased presence of humpback whales in inshore Irish waters, especially during the last decade. Despite this increase, results also highlight the apparently very small size of the North Atlantic humpback whale subgroup occurring in the inshore waters of Ireland.

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“…In recent years, some right whale habitats once identified as important aggregation and feeding areas (e.g. Bay of Fundy, Great South Channel) have shown a significant decline in right whale presence (Record et al 2019) and others have become new centers of right whale sightings (Simard et al 2019, Meyer-Gutbrod et al 2022, O'Brien et al 2022. In CCB, the abundance of right whales during the winter/spring season increased significantly between 1998 and 2017, resulting in an increasing proportion of the declining population feeding on the Bay's zooplankton resource (Mayo et al 2018, Ganley et al 2019.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The seasonal distribution of right whales across the Gulf of Maine and the waters of the Canadian Maritimes began to shift around 2010 (Meyer-Gutbrod & Greene 2014, Davis et al 2017 in the midst of a rapidly changing environment, with increasing water temperatures and changes in ocean circulation (Mills et al 2013, Chust et al 2014, Greene 2016, Seidov et al 2021. Changes in prey distribution are thought to be driving the changes in the whales' patterns of habitat use and possibly their overall health (Fortune et al 2013, Meyer-Gutbrod & Greene 2014, Meyer-Gutbrod et al 2015, O'Brien et al 2022). In addition, while the whales are protected in historic habitats, they are more vulnerable to anthropogenic mortality in new habitats.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

North Atlantic right whale Eubalaena glacialis prey selection in Cape Cod Bay

Hudak

Stamieszkin

Mayo

2023

Endang. Species. Res.

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North Atlantic right whales Eubalaena glacialis have been observed feeding in Cape Cod Bay (CCB) for over 8 decades, making CCB the most consistent known feeding habitat under shifting ocean and climate conditions. Determining the composition of the right whales’ prey resource in a stable feeding habitat during a period of environmental change will inform conservation efforts throughout their habitat range. We compared zooplankton sampled in the paths of skim-feeding right whales to the bay-wide zooplankton resource in CCB over 23 yr. The dominant zooplankton taxa in CCB were Pseudocalanus complex, Calanus finmarchicus, and Centropages spp. during the winter/spring seasons. The succession of these 3 dominant taxa—Centropages spp. to Pseudocalanus complex (day of the year [DOY] mean ± SD: 34 ± 3) to C. finmarchicus (DOY 92 ± 3)—has provided right whales with a stable, multi-month food resource in a small portion of their greater North Atlantic habitat. We found that right whales targeted aggregations of non-dominant prey groups: Pseudocalanus complex and Centropages spp. aggregations when Centropages spp. dominated the bay-wide zooplankton community; Pseudocalanus complex patches and C. finmarchicus patches when Pseudocalanus dominated; and primarily C. finmarchicus copepodite stage CIV and CV aggregations when CIII dominated bay-wide abundances. Over the time series, we found that Centropages spp. abundance increased and C. finmarchicus decreased only at the beginning of the season. CCB remains a critical foraging habitat for right whales due to the phenological cycle of their prey and limited inter-annual changes in prey abundance.

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Repatriation of a historical North Atlantic right whale habitat during an era of rapid climate change

Cited by 17 publications

References 57 publications

Redefining North Atlantic right whale habitat‐use patterns under climate change

Redefining North Atlantic right whale habitat‐use patterns under climate change

Abundance estimates of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) in Irish coastal waters using mark-recapture and citizen science

North Atlantic right whale Eubalaena glacialis prey selection in Cape Cod Bay

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