First satellite‐tracked movements of pygmy blue whales ( Balaenoptera musculus brevicauda ) in New Zealand waters

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimberly T. Goetz ◽  
Simon J. Childerhouse ◽  
David Paton ◽  
Mike Ogle ◽  
Krista Linde ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Balaenoptera Musculus ◽  
Blue Whales

Pioneer whalers in the Ross Sea, 1923–33

Polar Record ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 281-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Barr ◽  
James P.C. Watt
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Ross Sea ◽  
British Government ◽  
Ice Shelf ◽  
Ross Ice Shelf ◽  
Deep Waters ◽  
Pack Ice ◽  
Fin Whales ◽  
Blue Whales ◽  
Factory Ship

On Christmas Eve 1923, the whaling factory ship Sir James Clark Ross, commanded by Captain Carl Anton Larsen and accompanied by five catchers, reached the front of the Ross Ice Shelf; these were the first whaling vessels to operate in the Ross Sea. They had been dispatched by the Norwegian whaling company Hvalfangeraktienselskapet Rosshavet, which had obtained a licence from the British government. For most of the 1923–24 season, Sir James Clark Ross occupied an uneasy anchorage in the deep waters of Discovery Inlet, a narrow embayment in the front of the Ross Ice Shelf, while her catchers pursued whales widely in the Ross Sea. During that first season they killed and processed 221 whales (211 blue whales and 10 fin whales), which yielded 17,300 barrels of oil. During the next decade, with the exception of the 1931–32 season, Sir James Clark Ross and two other factory ships operated by Rosshavet, C.A. Larsen and Sir James Clark Ross II, operated in the Ross Sea. From the 1926–27 season onwards these ships were joined by up to three other factory ships and their catchers, operated by other companies. During the decade 1923–33 the Rosshavet ships killed and processed 9122 whales in the Ross Sea sector, mainly in the open waters of the Ross Sea south of the pack-ice belt. Total harvest for all factory ships from the Ross Sea sector for the period was 18,238 whales (mainly blue whales) producing 1,490,948 barrels of oil. From 1924 onwards the Rosshavet catchers wintered in Paterson Inlet on Stewart Island, New Zealand, and from 1925 onwards a well-equipped shipyard, Kaipipi Shipyard, operated on Price Peninsula in Paterson Inlet to service the Rosshavet ships.

scholarly journals Blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus) optimize foraging efficiency by balancing oxygen use and energy gain as a function of prey density

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (9) ◽  
pp. e1500469 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elliott Lee Hazen ◽  
Ari Seth Friedlaender ◽  
Jeremy Arthur Goldbogen
Keyword(s):  
Energy Intake ◽  
Prey Density ◽  
Prey Capture ◽  
Energy Gain ◽  
Foraging Strategies ◽  
Foraging Efficiency ◽  
Energetic Efficiency ◽  
Breath Hold ◽  
Balaenoptera Musculus ◽  
Blue Whales

Terrestrial predators can modulate the energy used for prey capture to maximize efficiency, but diving animals face the conflicting metabolic demands of energy intake and the minimization of oxygen depletion during a breath hold. It is thought that diving predators optimize their foraging success when oxygen use and energy gain act as competing currencies, but this hypothesis has not been rigorously tested because it has been difficult to measure the quality of prey that is targeted by free-ranging animals. We used high-resolution multisensor digital tags attached to foraging blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus) with concurrent acoustic prey measurements to quantify foraging performance across depth and prey density gradients. We parameterized two competing physiological models to estimate energy gain and expenditure based on foraging decisions. Our analyses show that at low prey densities, blue whale feeding rates and energy intake were low to minimize oxygen use, but at higher prey densities feeding frequency increased to maximize energy intake. Contrary to previous paradigms, we demonstrate that blue whales are not indiscriminate grazers but instead switch foraging strategies in response to variation in prey density and depth to maximize energetic efficiency.

scholarly journals From conservation genetics to conservation genomics: a genome-wide assessment of blue whales ( Balaenoptera musculus ) in Australian feeding aggregations

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 170925 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine R. M. Attard ◽  
Luciano B. Beheregaray ◽  
Jonathan Sandoval-Castillo ◽  
K. Curt S. Jenner ◽  
Peter C. Gill ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Population Structure ◽  
Adaptive Divergence ◽  
Balaenoptera Musculus ◽  
Blue Whale ◽  
Conservation Genomics ◽  
Next Generation Sequencing Technology ◽  
Genome Wide ◽  
A Genome ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Blue Whales

Genetic datasets of tens of markers have been superseded through next-generation sequencing technology with genome-wide datasets of thousands of markers. Genomic datasets improve our power to detect low population structure and identify adaptive divergence. The increased population-level knowledge can inform the conservation management of endangered species, such as the blue whale ( Balaenoptera musculus ). In Australia, there are two known feeding aggregations of the pygmy blue whale ( B. m. brevicauda ) which have shown no evidence of genetic structure based on a small dataset of 10 microsatellites and mtDNA. Here, we develop and implement a high-resolution dataset of 8294 genome-wide filtered single nucleotide polymorphisms, the first of its kind for blue whales. We use these data to assess whether the Australian feeding aggregations constitute one population and to test for the first time whether there is adaptive divergence between the feeding aggregations. We found no evidence of neutral population structure and negligible evidence of adaptive divergence. We propose that individuals likely travel widely between feeding areas and to breeding areas, which would require them to be adapted to a wide range of environmental conditions. This has important implications for their conservation as this blue whale population is likely vulnerable to a range of anthropogenic threats both off Australia and elsewhere.

Genetic diversity and structure of blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus) in Australian feeding aggregations

2010 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 2437-2441 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine R. M. Attard ◽  
Luciano B. Beheregaray ◽  
Curt Jenner ◽  
Peter Gill ◽  
Micheline Jenner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Diversity ◽  
Balaenoptera Musculus ◽  
Genetic Diversity And Structure ◽  
Blue Whales

scholarly journals A preliminary investigation into the ecology and behavior of blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus) in the Gulf of Corcovado, Chile

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Bocconcelli ◽  
Leigh S. Hickmott ◽  
Rafaela Landea Briones ◽  
Gloria Howes ◽  
Laela S. Sayigh
Keyword(s):  
Preliminary Investigation ◽  
Balaenoptera Musculus ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Blue Whales

scholarly journals Survival of adult blue whales Balaenoptera musculus in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada

2006 ◽  
Vol 319 ◽  
pp. 287-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
C Ramp ◽  
M Bérubé ◽  
W Hagen ◽  
R Sears
Keyword(s):  
Balaenoptera Musculus ◽  
Blue Whales

scholarly journals Occurrence of blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus) in offshore waters of southeastern Brazil

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandra Rocha ◽  
Camila Marchetto ◽  
Luiza Pacheco ◽  
Eduardo Resende Secchi
Keyword(s):  
Southeastern Brazil ◽  
Balaenoptera Musculus ◽  
Blue Whales

Blue whales Balaenoptera musculus in offshore waters of Kenya

2016 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 279-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
R Barber ◽  
I Sikora ◽  
M Nimak-Wood
Keyword(s):  
Balaenoptera Musculus ◽  
Blue Whales
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