Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-19T01:01:42.607Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Habitat use of humpback whales in Godthaabsfjord, West Greenland, with implications for commercial exploitation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 July 2010

Tenna Kragh Boye ,
Malene Simon  and
Peter Teglberg Madsen
Tenna Kragh Boye*
Affiliation:
Zoophysiology, Department of Biological Sciences, Aarhus University, C.F. Møllers Allé, Building 1131, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark
Malene Simon
Affiliation:
Zoophysiology, Department of Biological Sciences, Aarhus University, C.F. Møllers Allé, Building 1131, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark Department of Birds and Mammals, Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, PO Box 570, 3900 Nuuk, Greenland
Peter Teglberg Madsen
Affiliation:
Zoophysiology, Department of Biological Sciences, Aarhus University, C.F. Møllers Allé, Building 1131, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: T.K. Boye, Zoophysiology, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Aarhus, C.F. Møllers Allé, Building 1131, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

North Atlantic humpback whales migrate from breeding grounds to high latitude feeding areas to where individuals display large scale site fidelity. In Godthaabsfjord (Greenland), humpback whales are present from early spring to late autumn. To test for small scale site fidelity and occurrence, identification-photographs were collected from May to September 2007 and 2008 and compared with an older catalogue. We found high small scale site fidelity where 40% of the whales present in 2007 were resighted in 2008. The average resight rate from 1992 to 2008 was 30.2%. Individuals did not remain in the fjord the entire season and the time spent in the fjord was highly variable amongst individuals varying between 7–60% of the time from May to September. Individual humpback whales in the presence and absence of boats were tracked with a land-based theodolite to test for effects of whale watching on whale behaviour. Whale watch vessels were shown to significantly increase whale swimming speed, to shorten long dives and diminish the ratio between surfacings and long dives. It is concluded that the same foraging whales use this fjord system year after year, calling for regulation of whale watching and for consideration when discussing reopening the whaling of humpback whales in West Greenland.

Keywords

humpback whalephoto-identificationsite fidelityhabitat usetheodolite trackingwhale watching
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 90 , Special Issue 8: Marine Mammals , December 2010 , pp. 1529 - 1538
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Altmann, J. (1974) Observational study of behaviour: sampling methods. Behaviour 49, 228–239.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bejder, L., Dawson, S.M. and Harraway, J.A. (1999) Responses by Hector's dolphins to boats and swimmers in Porpoise Bay, New Zealand. Marine Mammal Science 15, 738–750.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bejder, L., Samuels, A., Whitehead, H., Gales, N., Mann, J., Connor, R.C., Heithaus, M.R., Watson-Capps, J., Flaherty, C. and Krützen, M. (2006) Decline in relative abundance of bottlenose dolphins exposed to long-term disturbance. Conservation Biology 20, 1791–1798.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Blackmer, A.L., Anderson, S.K. and Weinrich, M.T. (2000) Temporal variability in features used to photo-identify humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae). Marine Mammal Science 16, 338–354.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Calambokidis, J., Steiger, G.H., Rasmussen, K., Urbán, J.R., Balcomb, K.C., Geuvara, P.L., Salinas, M.Z., Jacobsen, J.K., Baker, S.C., Herman, L.M., Cerchio, S. and Darling, J.D. (2000) Migratory destinations of humpback whales that feed off California, Oregon and Washington. Marine Ecology Progress Series 192, 295–304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carlson, C.A., Mayo, C.A. and Whitehead, H. (1990) Changes in the ventral fluke pattern of the humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae), and its effect on matching; evaluation of its significance to photo-identification research. Report of the International Whaling Commision (Special Issue 12) SC/A88/ID35, 105–111.Google Scholar
Ciano, J.N. and Heule, R. (2001) Photo-identification of sperm whales at Bleik Canyon, Norway. Marine Mammal Science 17, 175–180.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clapham, P.J., Baraff, L.S., Carlson, C.A., Christian, M.A., Mattila, D.K, Mayo, C.A., Murphy, M.A., and Pittman, S. (1993) Seasonal occurrence and annual return of humpback whales, Megaptera novaeangliae, in the southern Gulf of Maine. Canadian Journal of Zoology 71, 440–443.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Della Rosa, L., Secchi, E.R., Maia, Y.G., Zerbini, A.N. and Heide-Jørgensen, M.P. (2008) Movements of satellite-monitored humpback whales on their feeding ground along the Antarctic Peninsula. Polar Biology 31, 771–781.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friis-Rødel, E. and Kanneworf, P. (2002) A review of capelin (Mallotus villosus) in Greenland waters. ICES Journal of Marine Science 59, 890–896.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gailey, G.A. and Ortega-Ortiz, J.G. (2000) User's manual ‘Pythagoras’ Version 1.0: Theodolite Cetacean Tracking. Galvestone, TX: Texas A & M University.Google Scholar
Heide-Jørgensen, M.P. and Laidre, K.L. (2007) Autumn space-use patterns of humpback whales (Megaptera noveangliae) in West Greenland. Journal of Cetacean Research and Management 9, 121–126.Google Scholar
Heide-Jørgensen, M.P., Simon, M.J. and Laidre, K.L. (2007) Estimates of large whale abundance in Greenlandic waters from a ship-based survey in 2005. Journal of Cetacean Research and Management 9, 95–104.Google Scholar
Heide-Jørgensen, M.P., Laidre, K.L., Hansen, R.G., Rasmussen, M., Burt, M.L., Borchers, D.L., Dietz, R. and Teilmann, J. (2008) Revised abundance estimates of humpback whales in West Greenland. Report of the International Whaling Commission SC/60/AWMP7, 1–35.Google Scholar
IWC (1986) Chairman's report of the thirty-seventh annual meeting. Report of the International Whaling Commission 36, 10–29.Google Scholar
IWC (2008) Annual Report of the International Whaling Commission 2008, Cambridge: International Wholing Commission.Google Scholar
Johnson, M.P. and Tyack, P.L. (2003) A digital acoustic recording tag for measuring the response of wild marine mammals to sound. IEEE Journal of Oceanographic Engineering 28, 3–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Katona, S.K., Baxter, B., Brazier, O., Kraus, S., Perkins, J. and Whitehead, H. (1979) Identification of humpback whales by fluke photographs. The behavior of marine mammals. In Winn, H.E. and Olla, B.L. (eds) Behavior of marine mammal science, Volume 3, Cetaceans. New York: Plenum Press, pp. 33–44.Google Scholar
Larsen, F. and Hammond, P.S. (2004) Distribution and abundance of West Greenland humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae). Journal of Zoology 263, 343–358.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lusseau, D. (2003) Male and female bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops spp.) have different strategies to avoid interactions with tour boats in Doubtful sound, New Zealand. Marine Ecology Progress Series 257, 267–274.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lusseau, D., Slooten, L. and Currey, R.J.C. (2006) Unsustainable dolphin-watching tourism in Fiordland, New Zealand. Tourism in Marine Environment 3, 173–178.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, A.R., Katona, S.K., Mattila, D., Hembree, D. and Waters, T.D. (1984) Migration of humpback whales between the Caribbean and Iceland. Journal of Mammalogy 65, 330–333.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
New Zealand Government (2008) Marine mammal protection regulations, 1992 (SR 1992/322). Reprint as at 11 September 2008.Google Scholar
O'Connor, S., Campbell, R., Cortez, H. and Knowles, T. (2009) Whale watching worldwide: tourism numbers, expenditures and expanding economic benefits, a special report from the International Fund for Animal Welfare.Yarmouth MA, USA, prepared by Economists at Large.Google Scholar
Palsbøll, P.J., Allen, J., Bérubé, M., Clapham, P.J., Feddersen, T.P., Hammond, P.S., Hudson, R.R., Jørgensen, H., Katona, S., Larsen, A.H., Larsen, F., Lien, J., Mattila, D., Sigurjónsson, J., Sears, R., Smith, T., Sponer, R., Stevick, P. and Øien, N. (1997) Genetic tagging of humpback whales. Nature 388, 767–769.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Payne, M.P., Wiley, D.N., Young, S.B., Pittman, S., Clapham, P.J. and Jossi, J.W. (1990) Recent fluctuations in the abundance of baleen whales in the Southern Gulf of Maine in relation to changes in selected prey. Fishery Bulletin 88, 687–696.Google Scholar
Pomilla, C. and Rosenbaum, H.C. (2005) Against the current: an inter-oceanic whale migration event. Biology Letters 1, 476–479.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Scheidat, M., Castro, C., Gonzalez, J. and Williams, R. (2004) Behavioural responses of humpback Whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) to whale watching boats near Isla de la Plata, Machalilla National park, Ecuador. Journal of Cetacean Research and Management 6, 63–68.Google Scholar
Stevick, P.T., Allen, J., Clampham, P.H., Friday, N., Katona, T.K, Larsen, F., Lien, J., Mattila, D.K., Palsbøll, P.J., Sigurjórnsson, J., Smith, T., Øien, N. and Hammond, P.S. (2003) North Atlantic humpback whale abundance and the rate of increase four decades after protection from whaling. Marine Ecology Progress Series 258, 263–273.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stevick, P.T., Allen, J., Clapham, P.H., Katona, T.K., Larsen, F., Lien, J., Mattila, D.K., Palsbøll, P.J., Sears, R., Sigurjórnsson, J., Smith, T.D., Vikingsson, G., Øien, N. and Hammond, P.S. (2006) Population spatial structuring on the feeding grounds in North Atlantic humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae). Journal of Zoology 270, 244–255.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weinrich, M., Martin, M., Griffiths, R., Bove, J., and Schilling, M. (1997) A shift in distribution of humpback whales, Megaptera novaeangliae, in response to prey in the southern Gulf of Maine. Fishery Bulletin 95, 826–836.Google Scholar
Weinrich, M. (1998) Early experience in habitat choice by humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae). Journal of Mammalogy 79, 163–170.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whitehead, H., Kevin, C., Perkins, J., Bryant, P. and Nichols, G. (1983) Population size, stock identity, and distribution of the humpback whales off West Greenland—summer 1981. Report of the International Whaling Commission 33, 497–501.Google Scholar
Williams, R., Trites, A.W. and Bain, D.E. (2002) Behavioral response of killer whales (Orcinus orca) to whale-watching boats: opportunistic observations and experimental approaches. Journal of Zoology, London 256, 255–270.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, R., Lusseau, D. and Hammond, P.S. (2006) Estimating relative energetic costs of human disturbance to killer whales (Orcinus orca). Biological Conservation 133, 301–311.CrossRefGoogle Scholar