Counting whales in a challenging, changing environment
Abstract
Estimating abundance of Antarctic minke whales is central to the International Whaling Commission's conservation and management work and understanding impacts of climate change on polar marine ecosystems. Detecting abundance trends is problematic, in part because minke whales are frequently sighted within Antarctic sea ice where navigational safety concerns prevent ships from surveying. Using icebreaker-supported helicopters, we conducted aerial surveys across a gradient of ice conditions to estimate minke whale density in the Weddell Sea. The surveys revealed substantial numbers of whales inside the sea ice. The Antarctic summer sea ice is undergoing rapid regional change in annual extent, distribution, and length of ice-covered season. These trends, along with substantial interannual variability in ice conditions, affect the proportion of whales available to be counted by traditional shipboard surveys. The strong association between whales and the dynamic, changing sea ice requires reexamination of the power to detect trends in whale abundance or predict ecosystem responses to climate change.
Citation
Williams , R , Kelly , N , Boebel , O , Friedlaender , A S , Herr , H , Kock , K -H , Lehnert , L S , Maksym , T , Roberts , J , Scheidat , M , Siebert , U & Brierley , A S 2014 , ' Counting whales in a challenging, changing environment ' , Scientific Reports , vol. 4 , 4170 . https://doi.org/10.1038/srep04170
Publication
Scientific Reports
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
2045-2322Type
Journal article
Description
Funding: Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowship within the 7th European Community Framework Programme (proposal Nu 253407 (call reference: FP7- PEOPLE-2009-IIF).Collections
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