I am pleased to announce the publication of the following note detailing the first high- to low-latitude North Pacific right whale photo-ID match:
Kennedy, A. S., Salden, D. R. and Clapham, P. J. (2011), First high- to low-latitude match of an eastern North Pacific right whale (*Eubalaena japonica*). Marine Mammal Science. doi: 10.1111/j.1748-7692.2011.00539.x *ABSTRACT:* The North Pacific right whale (NPRW, *Eubalaena japonica) *was hunted nearly to extinction in the 19th and 20th centuries, and the eastern population of the species is now estimated at only about 30 animals. The location of right whale breeding grounds in the North Pacific has been hypothesized, but remains entirely unknown. Most of the recent observations of eastern North Pacific right whales (including sightings, whaling records, acoustic detections and telemetry tracks) have occurred in the southeastern Bering Sea, but a few low-latitude sightings have been recorded off Baja California, California and Hawai’i. A photographic match between a North Pacific right whale seen in Hawai’i on 02 April 1996 and resighted in the Bering Sea on 30 July of that same year represents the first documented movement of an individual between low and high latitudes. While this match alone cannot confirm a species-wide annual high to low latitude migration, we use this sighting and others to speculate on the behavior and habitat use of this endangered and elusive remnant population. ** A pdf of this note can be downloaded from the Marine Mammal Science website http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1748-7692.2011.00539.x/abstract Cheers, Amy Kennedy
_______________________________________________ MARMAM mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/marmam
