“…Cetacean population decline rates can be estimated directly by using historical abundance estimates (Stevick et al, 2003;George, 2004;Zerbini et al, 2006;Zhao et al, 2008), or by demographic approaches (Fujiwara and Caswell, 2001;Stolen and Barlow, 2003;Moore and Read, 2008;Currey et al, 2009a,b;Huang et al, 2012b) such as life table analysis (Caswell et al, 1998;Dans et al, 2003;Stolen and Barlow, 2003;Moore and Read, 2008;Huang et al, 2012b). However, direct detection of population trends, either increases or declines, usually requires decades of field investigations, and the target population may have declined substantially before a change in abundance is detectable (Gerrodette, 1987;Taylor and Gerrodette, 1993;Thompson et al, 2000;Taylor et al, 2007;Wilson et al, 2011;Huang et al, 2012a).…”