Cryptic mortality of North Atlantic right whales

Details

• Journal Title:
  Conservation Science and Practice
• Personal Author:
  Pace, Richard M. ; Williams, Rob ; Kraus, Scott D. ; Knowlton, Amy R. ; Pettis, Heather M.
• NOAA Program & Office:
  NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service) ; NEFSC (Northeast Fisheries Science Center)
• Description:
  Evaluations of the conservation status of the endangered North Atlantic right whale as well as many other wildlife species often rely extensively on counts and cause-of-death determinations of carcasses found accidentally or during dedicated surveys. Even when survey effort dedicated to a population is extensive, many deaths may go unseen. We used an abundance estimation model to derive estimates of cryptic mortality for North Atlantic right whales and found that observed carcasses accounted for only 36% of all estimated death during 1990–2017.
• Keywords:
  Carcass detection, Cryptic mortality, Detection bias, Right whale, Total mortality
• Source:
  Conservation Science and Practice, 3:e346
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.346
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Rights Information:
  CC BY
• Compliance:
  Submitted
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:0ae59235f48698f0192a73e758f3d2a5148973c6f1609bb4b4d3b5552a28d930
• Download URL:
  https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/31474/noaa_31474_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.16 MB ]