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The south-eastern Indian Ocean study area with the track of the RV Odyssey, locations of the biopsy samples and gender of the sampled sperm whales, all automated acoustic detections of sperm whales recorded by Rainbow Click and bathymetry.
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The distribution and use of pelagic habitat by sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) is poorly understood in the south-eastern Indian Ocean off Western Australia. However, a variety of data are available via online portals where records of historical expeditions, commercial whaling operations, and modern scientific research voyages can now be acces...
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... days were spent on acoustic transects and visual searches off WA under various weather conditions and the track of the research voyage and the automated acoustic detections of sperm whales are shown in Figure 3. These data are displayed as kernel density plots in 15 nautical mile grid cells in the Perth Canyon area (austral summer), the Albany canyons and offshore in the New Holland historical whaling grounds (austral autumn; Figure 4). ...
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As part of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Natural Resource Damage Assessment in the Gulf of Mexico, we conducted a large passive acoustic survey across the eastern Gulf continental shelf edge to assess impacts to sperm whale population. In the months immediately after the spill, sperm whale occurrence was significantly higher in areas closest to t...
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... When there is an absolute lack of information, the knowledge of local people helps in constructing the history of the focal issue, which would help in re-creating the baseline information (McClenachan et al., 2012). Recent studies have shown how historical data can be integrated into conservation and management frameworks using scientific methods (Hassall & Thompson, 2010;Johnson et al., 2016). Considering the availability of discrete or lack of information on elephant range information, and since it is of recent 70 years, and still many old people available in the landscape having experience with the elephants, we opted to interview the local people to elucidate the presence of elephants at different time intervals, and their sightings were used to build the variations in the presence or abundance of a species over a period (Pan et al., 2016;Nash, Wong & Turvey, 2016). ...
Alterations of the geographical ranges of animals have become a reason for interactions with humans, leading to various consequences. We describe the pattern of range expansion of Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) and implications for human-elephant interactions in the agricultural landscape of South West Bengal, India. We enquired about past and current sightings of Asian elephants from local people to gather information on range expansion from the 1950s to 2018. We also collected the records of human deaths and injuries by elephants from 2010 to 2018 from the records of the Forest Department. We employed an occupancy framework to understand the probability of the occurrence of elephants in the landscape from 2010 to 2018. The range of elephants in the landscape increased from ∼1200 km2 in the 1950–60s to ∼13200 km2 by 2010–18. The calculated probability of use of grid cells was 36 % and the forest edge had a high influence on the space usage by the elephants. Elephants occurred in an average of 26 grid cells per month, and the number of grid cells with elephants did not differ between the months. A total of 640 attacks on humans occurred, which significantly varied between the years. The probability of elephant occurrence in a grid cell was the major determinant factor for the elephant attacks on humans. Although people respect elephants, there is a sense of intolerance towards them if they enter the crop fields, owing to the small land holdings and the incapacity to endure the monetary losses of the farmers.
... Extensive historical whaling records, for example, from the Yankee open-boat whaler era (Smith et al., 2012), have been used to reconstruct past species distributions (Monsarrat et al., 2016), ecological associations (Rodrigues et al., 2018), seasonal habitat use (Sahri et al., 2020), and historical exploitation dynamics (Rodrigues et al., 2018). Historical catch records have also been analyzed in combination with recent data from scientific surveys to generate time-integrated models of cetacean population change (e.g., Johnson et al., 2016). However, the lack of formal comparison with modern survey data makes it unclear whether whaling records provide novel or differing insights into cetacean species distributions and their environmental determinants compared with recent baselines. ...
... Recent estimates suggest that the estimated global population in 1999 (360,000 individuals) was only 32% that of prewhaling levels (Whitehead, 2002), and the species is currently listed as vulnerable by International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) (Taylor et al., 2019). Yankee whaling records have previously been incorporated in sperm whale habitat suitability models (Johnson et al., 2016) and have been used to provide information on seasonal changes in historical sperm whale habitat use (Sahri et al., 2020). However, Sahri et al. (2020) specifically questioned whether Yankee records might provide different conservationrelevant information on sperm whales in comparison with modern baselines because the modern distribution may not be effectively protected by an MPA placement prioritized on the basis of historical distribution. ...
... Historical distribution records for sperm whales dating from 1792 to 1912 in the WIO were obtained from the Census of Marine Life collection of American offshore whaling logbooks, which includes records of 36,909 sperm whales seen by American whalers (Smith et al., 2012). This archive has been used previously to investigate sperm whale distribution in the Eastern Indian Ocean (Johnson et al., 2016) and Indonesia (Sahri et al., 2020). ...
Many species are restricted to a marginal or suboptimal fraction of their historical range due to anthropogenic impacts, making it hard to interpret their ecological preferences from modern-day data alone. However, inferring past ecological states is limited by the availability of robust data and biases in historical archives, posing a challenge for policy makers . To highlight how historical records can be used to understand the ecological requirements of threatened species and inform conservation, we investigated sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) distribution in the Western Indian Ocean. We assessed differences in information content and habitat suitability predictions based on whale occurrence data from Yankee whaling logs (1792-1912) and from modern cetacean surveys (1995-2020). We built maximum entropy habitat suitability models containing static (bathymetry-derived) variables to compare models comprising historical-only and modern-only data. Using both historical and modern habitat suitability predictions we assessed marine protected area (MPA) placement by contrasting suitability in- and outside MPAs. The historical model predicted high habitat suitability in shelf and coastal regions near continents and islands, whereas the modern model predicted a less coastal distribution with high habitat suitability more restricted to areas of steep topography. The proportion of high habitat suitability inside versus outside MPAs was higher when applying the historical predictions than the modern predictions, suggesting that different marine spatial planning optimums can be reached from either data sources. Moreover, differences in relative habitat suitability predictions between eras were consistent with the historical depletion of sperm whales from coastal regions, which were easily accessed and targeted by whalers, resulting in a modern distribution limited more to steep continental margins and remote oceanic ridges. The use of historical data can provide important new insights and, through cautious interpretation, inform conservation planning and policy, for example, by identifying refugee species and regions of anticipated population recovery.
... 231 However, the southern right whale population in southeast Australia has been slow to recover 232 and still little data exists for cetaceans who rely on offshore areas off the continental shelf including sperm and beaked whales. 233 A major contributor to conservation is the Australian Whale Sanctuary 234 under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) which protects all cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) in the region. Although protected, Australia's whale highways are becoming increasingly complex and dangerous to navigate and require new thinking to management approaches across their entire range. ...
A new collaborative report from WWF and science partners provides the first comprehensive look at whale migrations and the threats they face across all oceans, highlighting how the cumulative impacts from industrial fishing, ship strikes, pollution, habitat loss, and climate change are creating a hazardous journey.
Protecting Blue Corridors report visualises the satellite tracks of over 1000 migratory whales worldwide. The report outlines how whales are encountering multiple and growing threats in their critical ocean habitats – areas where they feed, mate, give birth, and nurse their young – and along their migration superhighways, or ‘blue corridors’.
The report is a collaborative analysis of 30 years of scientific data contributed by more than 50 research groups, with leading marine scientists from Oregon State University, the University of California Santa Cruz, the University of Southampton and others.
Case studies highlight hotspots and risks that whales navigate on their migrations, some of which can be thousands of kilometers each year. As a result of these hazards, six out of the 13 great whale species are now classified as endangered or vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, even after decades of protection after commercial whaling. Among those populations most at risk is the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale, a species that migrates between Canada and the United States. It is at its lowest point in 20 years – numbering only 336 individuals.
Protecting Blue Corridors calls for a new conservation approach to address these mounting threats and safeguard whales, through enhanced cooperation from local to regional to international levels. Of particular urgency is engagement with the United Nations, which is set to finalise negotiations on a new treaty for the high seas (Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction) in March 2022.
The benefits from protected blue corridors extend far beyond whales. Growing evidence shows the critical role whales play maintaining ocean health and our global climate – with one whale capturing the same amount of carbon as thousands of trees. The International Monetary Fund estimates the value of a single great whale at more than US$2 million, which totals more than US$1 trillion for the current global population of great whales.
... Due to the difficulties of quantifying prey distributions directly, sperm whale habitat is typically described through environmental proxies for prey-aggregating processes, such as chlorophyll-a concentration being correlated with ocean productivity (Jaquet & Whitehead, 1996). We selected a series of topographic and environmental variables as candidate factors in the models to predict the whales' foraging distribution (Table 1), based on previous studies of habitat use by sperm whales (e.g., Diogou et al., 2019;Griffin, 1999;Johnson et al., 2016;Pirotta et al., 2011;Praca et al., 2009;Rendell et al., 2004;Torres et al., 2011;Wong & Whitehead, 2014) and other deep-diving marine mammals (e.g., Ferguson et al., 2006a;Hazen et al., 2011;Saijo et al., 2017). ...
... Previous studies have suggested that the high productivity and habitat diversity of submarine canyons can lead to localized high densities of fish and squid (Bosley et al., 2004;De Leo et al., 2010;Vetter & Dayton, 1998). Deep-diving cetaceans, and particularly sperm whales and beaked whales (family Zyphiidae), have strong associations with submarine canyons (Johnson et al., 2016;MacLeod & Zuur, 2005;Whitehead et al., 1992). While this relationship is clearly driven by prey availability (Moors-Murphy, 2014), the mechanisms behind it are poorly understood. ...
Knowledge of the spatial distribution and habitat preferences of marine top‐predators is essential for monitoring their populations. The summertime abundance of male sperm whales (parāoa, Physeter macrocephalus) at the Kaikōura Canyon (New Zealand) has almost halved over the last three decades, possibly reflecting a shift in distribution away from this foraging ground. To better understand the seasonal drivers of habitat use by sperm whales, we recorded presence and absence locations of foraging whales during acoustic‐visual surveys, in conjunction with water‐column oceanographic sampling. Season‐specific generalized additive models (GAM) indicated that whale distribution was best predicted by seafloor depth, thermal stratification in the water‐column, and slope gradient and orientation. Habitat use differed between summer and winter, consistent with patterns in diving behavior and stable isotope ratios, suggesting seasonal fluctuations in prey targeted by sperm whales. Our results advance understanding of fine‐scale habitat use by sperm whales, with new insights into the ecological drivers of seasonal fluctuations in foraging distribution. Our study demonstrates the importance of quantifying water‐column processes in the study of habitat preferences by deep‐diving predators. We also identify thermal stratification as an oceanographic feature susceptible to climate change, which could contribute to the decline in sperm whale abundance at Kaikōura.
... Ecological Indicators 116 (2020) 106472 historical dynamics using the Maxent model is still lacking. The most studies using historical data usually focused on refining and assessing modelling methods (Cao et al., 2013;Hertzog et al., 2014) or the usability of historical data for predicting species distribution (Jiang et al., 2018;Johnson et al., 2016). Examples applied to habitat historical dynamics and conservation purposes are rare in previous papers. ...
Numerous studies have been conducted on current distribution and future changes of habitats by researchers from a range of disciplines such as ecology, biology, geography, environmental science, and agricultural science, among others. However, there is a lack of detailed studies on historical spatiotemporal dynamics of habitat, which can provide useful information for the conservation and management of endangered species habitats. Thus, we proposed an integrated framework to assess historical changes of habitat across space and time, as well as to analyze the driving mechanism based on Maxent model and landscape theory. Here, we collected Red-crowned crane records and environmental variables including climate, elevation, wind farm disturbance, land use and land cover (LULC) type and disturbance, and road disturbance at regional scale from 1984 to 2017. Our results suggested that there was a dramatic decline in habitat area, habitat suitability and habitat connectivity. LULC disturbance was the major driving factor leading to the decline, followed by LULC type and wind farm disturbance. Importantly, our results quantified LULC disturbance threshold, LULC type suitability, and range of wind farm impact, which served to propose specific recommendations for habitat restoration. Our approach highlighted the importance of integrating species distribution models and landscape ecology theory for conservation, hence was widely applicable to endangered species in the context of increasing human activities.
... For instance, records of cetacean occurrence in Indonesian waters are lacking. This can be attributed to the high logistical costs of conducting expansive surveys (Johnson et al., 2016;Redfern et al., 2006;Thorne et al., 2012). Historical data are therefore an interesting alternative to consider (Johnson et al., 2016;Reeves, Smith, Josephson, Clapham, & Woolmer, 2004;Torres et al., 2013). ...
... This can be attributed to the high logistical costs of conducting expansive surveys (Johnson et al., 2016;Redfern et al., 2006;Thorne et al., 2012). Historical data are therefore an interesting alternative to consider (Johnson et al., 2016;Reeves, Smith, Josephson, Clapham, & Woolmer, 2004;Torres et al., 2013). ...
... Sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) were hunted extensively across all oceans for two centuries during the Yankee whaling era (Whitehead, 2002), when females were the focus on tropical grounds (Best, 1979;Whitehead, 2003). Males were preferred by modern whalers for their larger body size (Johnson et al., 2016). This difference in targeting led to a sex ratio imbalance that may have limited population recovery ever since (Carroll, Hedley, Bannister, Ensor, & Harcourt, 2014;Whitehead, 2002). ...
Aim: This study is the first in Indonesia to assess historical sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) seasonal distributions by combining historical whaling data with environmental factors associated with sperm whale habitat preferences. As current records of whale occurrence covering the whole of Indonesian waters are incomplete, we used historical whaling data summarized by Charles Haskins Townsend in 1935 to model its potential distribution for each season.
Location: Indonesian waters (92-143E, 9N-14S).
Taxa: Sperm whale (P. macrocephalus).
Methods: We used a presence-only habitat model-Maximum Entropy (Maxent)-, and a presence-pseudo-absence method-generalized additive model (GAM)-with nine submerged topographic variables to predict historical seasonal distributions.
Results: Both Maxent and GAM predict similar potential distribution which align closely with the whaling data. The results indicate that in four areas in the eastern part of Indonesia, no seasonal differences occurred in sperm whale distribution , while noticeable seasonal differences were indicated in other areas. The key parameters that characterize sperm whale habitat in both models were distance to coast, distance to −1,000 and −5,000 m isobaths, and submarine key features such as trough and trench.
Main conclusions: The historical catch data of this species can be used to describe the historical species distribution and provide a baseline to assess present distribution , prioritize current research and monitoring and recommend future data collection. Our models also predict distributions that are significantly larger than the ones occupied by sperm whales nowadays, another example of a shifting baseline. Our study demonstrates the benefits of incorporating historical whaling data into habitat models for ecological investigation and to inform conservation efforts for cetaceans.
... We combined sightings from both aerial and ship-borne PoP surveys ( Fig. 1) conducted over 3 years (2015)(2016)(2017) to provide one of the first descriptions of the cetacean assemblage of the Bremer Sub-Basin, off the southern coast of Western Australia (Fig. 2). The region encompasses an array of deep and biologically active submarine canyons (Huang et al. 2018) that attract a diversity of cetaceans, including sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) (Johnson et al. 2016), beaked whales (Mesoplodon spp.) (Wellard et al. 2016;Pitman et al. 2019) and killer whales (Wellard et al. 2015;Wellard and Erbe 2017). It is also the focus of multiple human uses, including seismic exploration, commercial fishing, and vessel traffic, with rates of increase in the cumulative impacts of anthropogenic activities among the highest on the globe (Halpern et al. 2019). ...
... In contrast, sperm whales were a target for commercial whaling during the last century, with long-lasting effort in offshore waters near Albany providing support for the historic regional significance for the species. Despite recent habitat suitability modelling pointing to south-west canyons off the continental shelf as suitable for sperm whales occupancy (Johnson et al. 2016), aerial surveys in 2009 did not provide evidence for sperm whale population recovery since the ban on whaling (Carroll et al. 2014). In recent years, however, the region has been recognised as having the largest seasonal aggregation of killer whales so far recorded in Australian waters (Wellard et al. 2015;Wellard and Erbe 2017). ...
... Due to their topographic complexity and proximity to the shelf break, most of these canyons are relatively productive features that sustain periodic upwellings, an abundant oxygen supply, and elevated particulate organic carbon concentrations (Huang et al. 2018). Such conditions favour biological activity, with both historical records and anecdotal evidence suggesting that a range of pelagic species including marine mammals, sharks, seabirds and fishes occur throughout the region (Johnson et al. 2016;Bouchet et al. 2018). The centre of the Sub-Basin is straddled by the Bremer Marine Park, a large regulated area that covers 4472 km 2 and combines an offshore no-take zone (IUCN class II) and an inshore Special Purpose zone (IUCN class IV, https://parksaustralia.gov.au/marine/parks/south-west/bremer/, ...
Cetaceans are iconic predators that serve as important indicators of marine ecosystem health. The Bremer Sub-Basin, south-western Australia, supports a diverse cetacean community including the largest documented aggregation of killer whales (Orcinus orca) in Australian waters. Knowledge of cetacean distributions is critical for managing the area’s thriving ecotourism industry, yet is largely sporadic. Here we combined aerial with opportunistic ship-borne surveys during 2015–2017 to describe the occurrence of multiple cetacean species on a regional scale. We used generalised estimating equations to model variation in killer whale relative density as a function of both static and dynamic covariates, including seabed depth, slope, and chlorophyll a concentration, while accounting for autocorrelation. Encountered cetacean groups included: killer (n = 177), sperm (n = 69), long-finned pilot (n = 29), false killer (n = 2), and strap-toothed beaked (n = 1) whales, as well as bottlenose (n = 12) and common (n = 5) dolphins. Killer whale numbers peaked in areas of low temperatures and high primary productivity, likely due to seasonal upwelling of nutrient-rich waters supporting high prey biomass. The best predictive model highlighted potential killer whale ‘hotspots’ in the Henry, Hood, Pallinup and Bremer Canyons. This study demonstrates the value of abundance data from platforms of opportunity for marine planning and wildlife management in the open ocean.
... Samples of stomach contents, muscle and fat tissue are primarily acquired from bycatch or stranded animals (Pierce & Boyle 1991), but also from hunted animals during commercial whaling (e.g. Olsen & Holt 2001, Johnson et al. 2016, aboriginal subsistence (e.g. Castellini 2000) or 'scientific' (e.g. ...
... Castellini 2000) or 'scientific' (e.g. Folkow et al. 2000, Haug et al. 2002, Konishi et al. 2014, Johnson et al. 2016 whaling. It is important to note that dietary contents can significantly differ de pending upon the origin of the sample (see Evans et al. 2003, Hernandez-Milian et al. 2015. ...
Competitive interactions between marine mammals and fisheries represent some of the most complex challenges in marine resource management worldwide. The development of commercial fisheries and recovering marine mammal populations have contributed to a decrease in fish availability. Whilst ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM) can counteract this decrease, achieving the EBFM objectives faces certain major obstacles including insufficient or unreliable data, inapplicable assessment models, as well as
inadequate management decisions that do not account for fisheries-induced morphological alterations (FIMA) and marine mammal management. Despite a body of evidence addressing various aspects of marine mammal−fisheries competition, little is known about the effects of marine mammal−fisheries biological interactions
affecting the fish viability and food web stability. We review the research on marine mammal−fisheries competitive biological interactions (hereafter biological competition) by focussing on
(1) the prerequisites for marine mammal−fisheries biological competition and the relevant methodologies to explore them and (2) recent studies revealing the implications of FIMA and trophic
interactions for the biological competition. We also discuss the implications of FIMA, eco-evolutionary feedback and prey−predator dynamics for EBFM implementation in contemporary harvested
ecosystems. Our main findings reveal a lack of data about marine mammals’ prey choice and selectivity, the need for better representation of marine mammals in modelling approaches
and lastly, the necessity for additional research linking FIMA, trophic interactions and the EBFM objectives. To conclude, interdisciplinary approaches may serve to link all of the efforts needed to effectively and holistically support the implementation of EBFM.
... Two other sources of sperm whale data, historic whaling records and modern visual observations, do sometimes span many years and have revealed multiple locations where sperm whales are found yearround (e.g. Clarke 1957, Oshumi 1966, Kasuya & Miyashita 1988, White head 2003, Jochens et al. 2008, Smith et al. 2012, Johnson et al. 2016; however, despite the longer duration, these data sets also lack the power to detect seasonal trends due to the difficulty of sampling in rough, winter weather. The seasonality re ported in the current study may be associated with geographic shifts in the population or changes in the composition of the population that have previously gone undetected due to sampling designs that would have had little power to detect a seasonal signal. ...
The easily identifiable, high-amplitude echolocation signals produced by sperm whales Physeter macrocephalus make the species ideal for long-term passive acoustic monitoring. Sperm whale signals were manually identified in the recordings from high-frequency acoustic recording packages monitoring 13 deep-water locations across the central and western North Pacific Ocean from 2005 to 2013, constituting the longest passive acoustic study of sperm whales to date. The species was detected at all of the sites, with the highest detection rate at Ladd Seamount (>18% of analyzed periods) and the lowest rates at equatorial sites (<1% of analyzed periods). Generalized additive models and generalized estimating equations were used to produce explanatory models to assess temporal and geographic patterns. The model variables included diel phase, lunar day, day of the year, year, and site. The site-specific variability in detection rates was high across the North Pacific, but there were also common patterns, including a seasonal trend, with decreased detections during the summer or fall, and a diel trend, with increased detections at night. There appeared to be a seasonal movement pattern, with minimum detection rates occurring later in the year at more northerly sites. The nocturnal pattern was seen across all data sets but was not strong at equatorial locations. Although lunar cycles were important at many sites, there was no consistent trend at any spatial scale. Overall, this analysis confirms the broad distribution of sperm whales across the North Pacific and highlights the subtle temporal patterns in their acoustic activity, which may be related to shifts in animal behavior or movement.
... Observations and modelling results confirmed high habitat suitability in offshore waters (mostly > 2000 m depth) in summer in areas with high chl a concentration and high habitat complexity. This supports results from other studies where complex topography (Pirotta et al. 2011, Johnson et al. 2016 and high primary productivity (Jaquet & Whitehead 1996, Praca et al. 2009) have been reported as good indicators of sperm whale distribution. ...
Knowledge of the occurrence and distribution of cetaceans is particularly important for conservation and management, but is still limited within Namibian waters. We collated 3211 cetacean records from the Namibian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) for the period 2008 to 2016 and applied the principle of minimum cross entropy (MinxEnt) to predict habitat suitability. Minx-Ent is a generalised form of maximum entropy modelling that allows incorporation of additional information such as sampling bias. The habitat suitability of 9 cetacean species or species groups (5 odontocete species, 2 mysticete species and 2 taxonomic groups: pilot whales Globicephalus spp. and balaenopterids Balaenopteridae spp.) were predicted per season, in relation to environmental variables likely to drive cetacean presence: sea surface temperature, chlorophyll a concentration, water depth or distance to shore, seabed slope and habitat complexity. The environmental variable which most frequently influenced habitat suitability was depth, which was the main environmental driver for bottlenose dolphin Tursiops truncatus, humpback Megaptera novaeangliae and southern right whales Eubalaena australis. Further, Heaviside’s dolphin Cephalo rhynchus heavisidii habitat was best predicted by distance to shore in all seasons, while common dolphin Delphinus delphis and the balaenopterid group habitats were best predicted by habitat complexity, and sperm whale Physeter macrocephalus habitats by chlorophyll a concentration. We identify distinct spatial patterns in habitat suitability for different species and provide baseline maps which can be used by managers of wildlife resources.
