Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T03:48:25.975Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Photo-identification of fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus L.) off the south coast of Ireland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 January 2011

Pádraig Whooley ,
Simon Berrow  and
Colin Barnes
Pádraig Whooley
Affiliation:
Irish Whale and Dolphin Group, Merchants Quay, Kilrush, County Clare, Ireland
Simon Berrow*
Affiliation:
Irish Whale and Dolphin Group, Merchants Quay, Kilrush, County Clare, Ireland
Colin Barnes
Affiliation:
West Cork Marine Tours, Ballycahane, Castletownshend, County Cork, Ireland
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: S. Berrow, Irish Whale and Dolphin Group, Merchants Quay, Kilrush, County Clare, Ireland email: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

Photo-identification of fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus L.) was carried out off the south coast of Ireland between 2003 and 2008. During 79 research trips, mainly on-board a whale watching vessel, 62 individual fin whales were identified using a variety of marks, including notches in the dorsal fin, blotches and scars. Forty (65%) of these whales were only seen once but eleven whales (18%) have been recorded within a year on up to four occasions within a season and eleven whales (18%) re-sighted between years with one recorded in four and one in five of the last seven years. Re-sighting rate varied depending on the marks used to identify whales but was 17.7% overall. The mean interval between the first and last reported sighting was 33.2 days, with a minimum of one day and a maximum interval of 165 days. The south coast of Ireland is an important site for fin whales and provides excellent research opportunities due to their close proximity to land.

Keywords

fin whalephoto-identificationsite fidelityinter-annual
Type
Research Article
Information
Marine Biodiversity Records , Volume 4 , December 2011 , e8
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Agler, B.A., Beard, J.A., Bowman, R.S., Corbett, H.D., Frohock, S.E., Hawvermale, M.P., Katona, S.K., Sadove, S.S. and Seipt, I.E. (1990) Fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus) photographic identification: methodology and preliminary results from the western North Altantic. In Hammond, P.S. and Donovan, G.P. (eds) Individual recognition of cetaceans; the use of photographic identification and other techniques to estimate population parameters. Reports of the International Whaling Commission, Special Issue 12, 440 pp.Google Scholar
Agler, B.A., Schooley, R.L., Frohock, S.E., Katona, S.K. and Seipt, I.E. (1993) Reproduction of photographically identified fin whales, Balaenoptera physalus, from the Gulf of Maine. Journal of Mammology 74, 577–587.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bendinoni, F., Azzellino, A., Panigada, S. and Zanardelli, M. (2003) Fin whale population estimates in the Western Ligurian Sea through mark–recapture methods applied to photo-identification data. In Abstracts of the 15th Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals, Greensboro, NC, USA, 14–19 December 2003.Google Scholar
Berrow, S.D., Whooley, P. and Ferriss, S. (2002) Irish Whale and Dolphin Group Cetacean Sighting Review (1991–2001). Irish Whale and Dolphin Group, 34 pp.Google Scholar
Bérubé, M., Aquilar, A., Dendanto, D., Larsen, F., Di Sciara, G.N., Sears, R., Sigurjonsson, J., Urban, R.J. and Palsboll, P. (1998) Population genetic structure North Atlantic, Meditteranean Sea and Sea of Cortez fin whales, Balaenoptera physalus (Linnaeus, 1758): analysis of mitrochondrial and nuclear loci. Molecular Ecology 7, 585–599.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Castro-Pampillón, J.A., Soto-Búa, M., Rodríguez-Domínguez, H., Mejuto-García, J., Arias-Fernández, C. and García-Estévez, J.M. (2002) Selecting parasites for use in biological tagging of the Atlantic swordfish (Xiphias gladius). Fisheries Research 59, 259–262.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, C.W. and Charif, R.A. (1998) Acoustic monitoring of large whales to the west of Britain and Ireland using bottom-mounted hydrophone arrays, October 1996–September 1997. JNCC Report No. 281, 25 pp.Google Scholar
Clark, C.W. and Charif, R.A. (2000) Acoustic monitoring of large whales to the west of Britain and Ireland using bottom-mounted hydrophone arrays, October 1996–September 1998. JNCC Report No. 313, 34 pp.Google Scholar
CODA (2008) Progress Report on the CODA Project. 15th Meeting of the Advisory Committee Meeting of ASCOBANS, 31 March–3 April 2008.Google Scholar
Evans, P.G.H. (1990) European cetaceans and seabirds in an oceanographic context. Lutra, 33, 95–125.Google Scholar
Fairley, J.S. (1981) Irish whales and whaling. Belfast: Blackstaff Press, 252 pp.Google Scholar
Hoyt, E. (2000) Whale watching 2000, worldwide tourism numbers, expenditures and expanding socioeconomic benefits. Crowborough, UK: International Fund for Animal Welfare.Google Scholar
IWC (International Whaling Commission) (2007) Journal of Cetacean Research and Management 9, Supplement April 2007.Google Scholar
Macleod, K., Simmonds, M.P. and Murray, E. (2003) Summer distribution and relative abundance of cetacean populations off north-west Scotland. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 83, 1187–1192.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Molloy, J. (2006) The herring fisheries of Ireland (1990–2005): biology, research, development and assessment. Marine Institute, Galway.Google Scholar
Moore, M., Steiner, L. and Jann, B. (2003) Cetacean surveys in the Cape Verde Islands and the use of cookiecutter shark bite lesions as a population marker for fin whales. Aquatic Mammals 29.2, 383–389.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Notarbartolo di Sciara, G. and Evans, P.G.H. (2008) Fin whale Balaenoptera physalus. In Harris, S. and Yalden, D.W. (eds) Mammals of the British Isles: handbook. 4th edition. Southampton: The Mammal Society, pp. 669–672.Google Scholar
O'Cadhla, O., Mackey, M., Aguilar de Soto, N., Rogan, E. and Connolly, N. (2004) Cetaceans and seabirds of Ireland's Atlantic Margin. Volume II—Cetacean distribution and abundance. Report on research carried out under the Irish Infrastructure Programme (PIP): Rockall Studies Group (RSG) projects 98/6 and 00/13, Porcupine Studies Group project P00/15 and Offshore Support Group (OSG) project 99/38, 82 pp.Google Scholar
O'Connell, M. and Berrow, S.D. (2008) Records from the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group for 2008. Irish Naturalists' Journal 79, 40–45.Google Scholar
Reid, J.B., Evans, P.G.H. and Northridge, S.P. (2003) Atlas of cetacean distribution in north-west European waters. Peterborough: Joint Nature Conservation Committee, 75 pp.Google Scholar
Robbins, J., Dendanto, D., Giard, J., Panigada, S., Sears, R. and Zanardelli, M. (2008) Photo-id studies of fin whales in the North Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. Report of the International Whaling Commission, SC/59/PF1.Google Scholar
Schulte, D.W. and Kennedy, J.L. (2004) Recurrence of humpback and finback whales on Jeffreys Ledge, Gulf of Maine, 1996–2003. Proceedings of the American Cetacean Society Conference, Long Beach, California, November 2004.Google Scholar
Smiddy, P. (1990) Fin whale Balaenoptera physalus (L.) Irish Naturalists' Journal 23, 328.Google Scholar
Weir, C., Pollock, C., Cronin, C. and Taylor, S. (2001) Cetaceans of the Atlantic Frontier, north and west of Scotland. Continental Shelf Research 21, 1047–1071.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zanardelli, M., Notarbartolo di Sciara, G. and Jahoda, M. (1992) Photo-identification and behavioural observations of fin whales summering in the Ligurian Sea. European Research on Cetaceans 6, 86–89.Google Scholar