Trends in Abundance of North Atlantic Humpback Whales in the Gulf of Maine

Robbins, Jooke; Pace, Richard M.

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The NOAA IR serves as an archival repository of NOAA-published products including scientific findings, journal articles, guidelines, recommendations, or other information authored or co-authored by NOAA or funded partners. As a repository, the NOAA IR retains documents in their original published format to ensure public access to scientific information.

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Trends in Abundance of North Atlantic Humpback Whales in the Gulf of Maine

2018
By Robbins, Jooke ; Pace, Richard M.

[PDF-700.03 KB]

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Details:

Personal Author:

Robbins, Jooke ; Pace, Richard M.

Robbins, Jooke ; Pace, Richard M. Less -
Corporate Authors:

United States. National Marine Fisheries Service ; Northeast Fisheries Science Center (U.S.)

United States. National Marine Fisheries Service ; Northeast Fisheries Science Center (U.S.) Less -
NOAA Program & Office:

NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service) ; NEFSC (Northeast Fisheries Science Center)

NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service) ; NEFSC (Northeast Fisheries Science Center) Less -
Description:

The Gulf of Maine is the south-western most humpback whale feeding ground in the North Atlantic Ocean, and the primary area in U.S. waters. This population has been the subject of long-term photo-identification research since the late 1980s, but detailed studies of population size and trend have been limited. We used annual surveys across the primary Gulf of Maine feeding range and auxiliary data to estimate population size and growth from 2000 through 2016. A Bayesian state-space open population model accounting for demography and individual heterogeneity was implemented, and the results were compared to commonly used open-population mark-recapture models and Minimum Number Alive enumeration methods. The best estimate of 2016 abundance was 1,317 individuals (95% credible interval 1,278-1,350). Based on ancillary data, we have evidence that the population was likely never below 701 individuals during the study period, despite low abundances produced by the statistical models early in the time series. The results further suggest that this is a mature population that has exhibited relatively slow continued annual growth (geometric mean = 3.4%) since 2009. These findings from long-term population research significantly improve understanding of a Federally-protected species and its potential vulnerability to human impacts.
Keywords:

[+]

Animal Feeding Animals Fishes Fish Populations Human Activity Recognition Photographic Identification Species Surveys Whales
Document Type:

Technical Report
Funding:

Contract EE133F-17-SE-1320, Task I
Place as Subject:

Maine, Gulf of ; North Atlantic Ocean

Maine, Gulf of ; North Atlantic Ocean Less -
Rights Information:

Public Domain
Compliance:

Submitted
Main Document Checksum:

[+]

urn:sha256:7770243151e13c227d5c575fb09bf0b0bae210ebeed4bb43d680e737b35786f1
Download URL:

https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/22947/noaa_22947_DS1.pdf
File Type:

Data Set

xlsx

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