Bowhead whales overwinter in the Amundsen Gulf and Eastern Beaufort Sea

Insley, Stephen J.; Halliday, William D.; Mouy, Xavier; Διόγου, Νικολέττα

doi:10.1098/rsos.202268

Cited by 22 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Now, though, bowhead whales are remaining in the Beaufort Sea longer, as evidenced by recent data from the Canadian Beaufort where bowhead whales were detected in late December in 2016 [55], the same year in which they were recorded in our data, just further west, into January 2017. More extreme evidence of this delayed migration includes mid-winter sightings and acoustic detections of bowhead whales in the eastern Canadian Beaufort in 2018-2019 [56]. While the seasonal residency of bowheads in the Beaufort seems to be extending with declining sea ice [55][56][57], particularly in the fall, there is less evidence that they are changing their overall distribution.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…More extreme evidence of this delayed migration includes mid-winter sightings and acoustic detections of bowhead whales in the eastern Canadian Beaufort in 2018-2019 [56]. While the seasonal residency of bowheads in the Beaufort seems to be extending with declining sea ice [55][56][57], particularly in the fall, there is less evidence that they are changing their overall distribution. As in the 1980s to early 1990s [28], bowhead whales are still found predominately on the Beaufort Sea shelf suggesting that distance to the coast, and/ or bathymetry is a more important driver of occurrence than distance to sea ice [44,58].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Bowhead and beluga whale acoustic detections in the western Beaufort Sea 2008–2018

et al. 2021

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The Distributed Biological Observatory (DBO) was established to detect environmental changes in the Pacific Arctic by regular monitoring of biophysical responses in each of 8 DBO regions. Here we examine the occurrence of bowhead and beluga whale vocalizations in the western Beaufort Sea acquired by acoustic instruments deployed from September 2008-July 2014 and September 2016-October 2018 to examine inter-annual variability of these Arctic endemic species in DBO Region 6. Acoustic data were collected on an oceanographic mooring deployed in the Beaufort shelfbreak jet at ~71.4°N, 152.0°W. Spectrograms of acoustic data files were visually examined for the presence or absence of known signals of bowhead and beluga whales. Weekly averages of whale occurrence were compared with outputs of zooplankton, temperature and sea ice from the BIOMAS model to determine if any of these variables influenced whale occurrence. In addition, the dates of acoustic whale passage in the spring and fall were compared to annual sea ice melt-out and freeze-up dates to examine changes in phenology. Neither bowhead nor beluga whale migration times changed significantly in spring, but bowhead whales migrated significantly later in fall from 2008–2018. There were no clear relationships between bowhead whales and the environmental variables, suggesting that the DBO 6 region is a migratory corridor, but not a feeding hotspot, for this species. Surprisingly, beluga whale acoustic presence was related to zooplankton biomass near the mooring, but this is unlikely to be a direct relationship: there are likely interactions of environmental drivers that result in higher occurrence of both modeled zooplankton and belugas in the DBO 6 region. The environmental triggers that drive the migratory phenology of the two Arctic endemic cetacean species likely extend from Bering Sea transport of heat, nutrients and plankton through the Chukchi and into the Beaufort Sea.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bowhead and beluga whale acoustic detections in the western Beaufort Sea 2008–2018

et al. 2021

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“…This region is undergoing loss of sea ice, ocean warming, changes in stratification from the introduction of freshwater, and ocean acidification (Carmack & McLaughlin, 2011; Comiso et al, 2008; Jackson et al, 2010). Warming ocean temperatures and melting sea ice is leading to seasonal shifts of habitat use with some marine mammals showing increased presence and prolonged stays in areas that were historically covered in pack ice but are now open (Higdon & Ferguson, 2011; Insley et al, 2021; Laidre et al, 2015). Rapid changes in sea ice could benefit marine mammals that are normally restricted to ice‐free regions by exposing new habitats.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in sea ice and range expansion of sperm whales in the eclipse sound region of Baffin Bay, Canada

Posdaljian

Soderstjerna

Jones

et al. 2022

Global Change Biology

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Sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) are a cosmopolitan species but are only found in ice‐free regions of the ocean. It is unknown how their distribution might change in regions undergoing rapid loss of sea ice and ocean warming like Baffin Bay in the eastern Canadian Arctic. In 2014 and 2018, sperm whales were sighted near Eclipse Sound, Baffin Bay: the first recorded uses of this region by sperm whales. In this study, we investigate the spatiotemporal distribution of sperm whales near Eclipse Sound using visual and acoustic data. We combine several published open‐source, data sets to create a map of historical sperm whale presence in the region. We use passive acoustic data from two recording sites between 2015 and 2019 to investigate more recent presence in the region. We also analyze regional trends in sea ice concentration (SIC) dating back to 1901 and relate acoustic presence of sperm whales to the mean SIC near the recording sites. We found no records of sperm whale sightings near Eclipse Sound outside of the 2014/2018 observations. Our acoustic data told a different story, with sperm whales recorded yearly from 2015 to 2019 with presence in the late summer and fall months. Sperm whale acoustic presence increased over the 5‐year study duration and was closely related to the minimum SIC each year. Sperm whales, like other cetaceans, are ecosystem sentinels, or indicators of ecosystem change. Increasing number of days with sperm whale presence in the Eclipse Sound region could indicate range expansion of sperm whales as a result of changes in sea ice. Monitoring climate change‐induced range expansion in this region is important to understand how increasing presence of a top‐predator might impact the Arctic food web.

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“…Climate change is affecting the temporal and spatial distributions of marine species worldwide 1 – 4 . Warming temperatures may cause phenological changes, such as earlier or later arrivals in habitats 2 , longer residence times 3 , or a mismatch in important predator–prey processes 5 – 8 (e.g., mismatches between migration timing and prey maturation). Changes in spatial distributions resulting from climate change include movements poleward, range expansion, range contraction, or changes in migratory behavior 9 – 12 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Repatriation of a historical North Atlantic right whale habitat during an era of rapid climate change

O’Brien

Pendleton

Ganley

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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Climate change is affecting species distributions in space and time. In the Gulf of Maine, one of the fastest-warming marine regions on Earth, rapid warming has caused prey-related changes in the distribution of the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis). Concurrently, right whales have returned to historically important areas such as southern New England shelf waters, an area known to have been a whaling ground. We compared aerial survey data from two time periods (2013–2015; 2017–2019) to assess trends in right whale abundance in the region during winter and spring. Using distance sampling techniques, we chose a hazard rate key function to model right whale detections and used seasonal encounter rates to estimate abundance. The mean log of abundance increased by 1.40 annually between 2013 and 2019 (p = 0.004), and the mean number of individuals detected per year increased by 2.23 annually between 2013 and 2019 (R2 = 0.69, p = 0.001). These results demonstrate the current importance of this habitat and suggest that management options must continually evolve as right whales repatriate historical habitats and potentially expand to new habitats as they adapt to climate change.

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Bowhead whales overwinter in the Amundsen Gulf and Eastern Beaufort Sea

Cited by 22 publications

References 43 publications

Bowhead and beluga whale acoustic detections in the western Beaufort Sea 2008–2018

Bowhead and beluga whale acoustic detections in the western Beaufort Sea 2008–2018

Changes in sea ice and range expansion of sperm whales in the eclipse sound region of Baffin Bay, Canada

Repatriation of a historical North Atlantic right whale habitat during an era of rapid climate change

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