Papers

Peer-reviewed
Jan 1, 2018

Photo-identification matches of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) from feeding areas in Russian Far East seas and breeding grounds in the North Pacific

Marine Mammal Science
  • Olga V. Titova
  • ,
  • Olga A. Filatova
  • ,
  • Ivan D. Fedutin
  • ,
  • Ekaterina N. Ovsyanikova
  • ,
  • Haruna Okabe
  • ,
  • Nozomi Kobayashi
  • ,
  • Jo Marie V Acebes
  • ,
  • Alexandr M. Burdin
  • ,
  • Erich Hoyt

Volume
34
Number
1
First page
100
Last page
112
Language
English
Publishing type
Research paper (scientific journal)
DOI
10.1111/mms.12444
Publisher
Blackwell Publishing Inc.

Humpback whales migrate seasonally from high latitude feeding areas to lower latitude breeding areas for mating and calving. In 2004–2006, a North Pacific basin-wide study called SPLASH was conducted as an international collaboration among various groups of researchers. The Russian Far East consists of multiple high latitude feeding areas and during SPLASH, 102 whales were identified and compared to catalogs from breeding areas. Our goal in this study was to further investigate the migratory destinations of whales from the Russian Far East using a total of 1,459 photographs of whales identified from 2004 to 2014. We compared the latest Russian catalog with the SPLASH catalog from wintering areas (2004–2006) and with two additional regional catalogs from Okinawa (1989–2006) and the northern Philippines (2000–2006). We found a total of 152 matches: 106 with Asian, 35 with Hawaiian, and 11 with Mexican breeding grounds. The match rate was higher in mainland Kamchatka and consisted mostly of whales from the Asian breeding ground. In the Commander Islands, the proportion of whales from Asia was twice that of Hawaii and six times higher than Mexico. The total match rate was low, supporting the hypothesis of some undiscovered humpback whale breeding location in the North Pacific.

Link information
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1111/mms.12444
ID information
  • DOI : 10.1111/mms.12444
  • ISSN : 1748-7692
  • ISSN : 0824-0469
  • SCOPUS ID : 85030469641

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