New records of southern elephant seals<i>Mirounga leonina</i>L. on the coast of southern Africa

Oosthuizen, W. H.; David, J. H. M.; Ross, G. J. B.

doi:10.2989/025776188784378991

Cited by 14 publications

(21 citation statements)

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“…However, as individual elephant seals are infrequently recorded along the South African coast (Oosthuizen et al 1988), this is not conclusive evidence. Nevertheless, there is the possibility that killer whales from Subantarctic islands may regularly occur in African waters.…”

Section: Conservationmentioning

confidence: 90%

Sightings of killer whalesOrcinus orcafrom longline vessels in South African waters, and consideration of the regional conservation status

Williams¹,

Petersen²,

Goren³

et al. 2009

African Journal of Marine Science

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Killer whales Orcinus orca are seldom reported from South African nearshore waters but, allowing for the bias of vessel attraction, observations from longline vessels suggest there is a resident offshore population of fish-eating killer whales. We present reports of killer whales made by observers on pelagic longline vessels fishing for tuna Thunnus spp., swordfish Xiphias gladius and sharks off South Africa, and on demersal longline vessels fishing for Patagonian toothfish Dissostichus eleginoides off the Subantarctic Prince Edward Islands. Off South Africa, observers reported 689 occurrences of killer whales during the period January 2002 to December 2006. Observations off South Africa peaked in January and were minimal in April-May. Most killer whale pods comprised 1-4 individuals and few were more than six. Observations were largely over the shelf edge between the Agulhas Bank and Port Elizabeth on the south-east coast of South Africa. A total of 1 843 line sets were made using 3.8 million hooks and killer whales occurred at an overall rate of 0.18 per 1 000 hooks. Killer whales depredated at an overall rate of 0.5% of the total catch. A small (maximum 12 individuals) population was recorded at longline vessels off the Prince Edward Islands, but observations were limited to August-September, October-November and May-June. We consider the conservation status of killer whales in southern African waters to be 'vulnerable', because the populations are very small and are subject to both shortand long-term impacts from the longline fisheries.

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Section: Conservationmentioning

confidence: 90%

Sightings of killer whalesOrcinus orcafrom longline vessels in South African waters, and consideration of the regional conservation status

Williams¹,

Petersen²,

Goren³

et al. 2009

African Journal of Marine Science

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“…He also published important works on pinniped biology (Ross , , ; De Villiers and Ross , Shaughnessy and Ross ; Oosthuizen et al . ; Garrigue and Ross ), including novel work of the feeding behavior of crabeater seals, Lobodon carcinophaga , based on observations of captive animals at the PE Museum (Ross et al . , ).…”

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confidence: 99%

Graham James Berry Ross 1945–2017

Plön

Hofmeyr

Cockcroft

et al. 2017

Marine Mammal Science

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“…The longest recorded movement is of a juvenile female sighted on Peter Øy Island after being branded on Macquarie Island, approximately 5200 km away, returning to Macquarie Island subsequently (Hindell & McMahon 2000). It therefore comes as no surprise that Oosthuizen et al (1988) reported on records of southern elephant seals on the South African coastline, and that an unconfirmed number has been recorded since then by three separate regional authorities (M. Meyer, pers. comm., November 2010 ) resulting in a need to work towards a combined dataset in South Africa.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…It is unclear if these records of elephant seals on the South African coastline represent true vagrants or the outer fringe of normal dispersal (Oosthuizen et al 1988). Oosthuizen et al (1988) also reported that a high number of sighted animals were tagged upon discovery, which would counter the likely overestimate of vagrant presence due to re-sightings of unmarked animals, although an unknown number of individuals probably go unnoticed.Occasionally, vagrant elephant seals may occupy beaches for a short period and create tremendous local interest. Recently an adult female southern elephant seal hauled out onto the popular Diaz tourist beach in Mossel Bay (34°09'32"S, 22°06'37"E) at 14:48 on 12 October 2010.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…comm., November 2010 ) resulting in a need to work towards a combined dataset in South Africa. It is unclear if these records of elephant seals on the South African coastline represent true vagrants or the outer fringe of normal dispersal (Oosthuizen et al 1988). Oosthuizen et al (1988) also reported that a high number of sighted animals were tagged upon discovery, which would counter the likely overestimate of vagrant presence due to re-sightings of unmarked animals, although an unknown number of individuals probably go unnoticed.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Vagrant Southern Elephant Seal and Human Disturbance in Mossel Bay, South Africa

Mertz¹,

Bester²

2011

South African Journal of Wildlife Research

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An opportunistic observational study on human disturbance of a vagrant southern elephant seal that was hauled out on a tourist beach in Mossel Bay, South Africa, is presented. Incidences of pedestrians ignoring signage and the demarcation barrier around the seal raise questions about the management of such haulout events, pubic safety and the effects of disturbance.Key words: human disturbance, Mirounga leonina, Mossel Bay, pinnipeds, southern elephant seal, tourism management, vagrant.Southern elephant seals Mirounga leonina have a circumpolar distribution in the Southern Ocean with major breeding populations close to the Antarctic Polar Front (Laws 1994). Approximately 54% of the world population breeds at South Georgia (Boyd et al. 1996) some 4750 km from South Africa (Bester 1989). The closest breeding colonies to Mossel Bay, South Africa are the Prince Edward Islands (~46°46'S, 37°51'E) 1933 km to the southeast, Bouvet (54°25'S, 3°24'E) 2697 km to the south, and Gough Island (40°20'S, 9°54'W) 2922 km to the southwest (Bester 1980(Bester , 1989Kirkman et al. 2001). Southern elephant seals are capable of travelling very long distances at sea covering hundreds to thousands of kilometres annually (e.g. Bester 1989;Jonker & Bester 1998; Tosh et al. 2009;Reisinger & Bester 2010). The longest recorded movement is of a juvenile female sighted on Peter Øy Island after being branded on Macquarie Island, approximately 5200 km away, returning to Macquarie Island subsequently (Hindell & McMahon 2000). It therefore comes as no surprise that Oosthuizen et al. (1988) reported on records of southern elephant seals on the South African coastline, and that an unconfirmed number has been recorded since then by three separate regional authorities (M. Meyer, pers. comm., November 2010 ) resulting in a need to work towards a combined dataset in South Africa. It is unclear if these records of elephant seals on the South African coastline represent true vagrants or the outer fringe of normal dispersal (Oosthuizen et al. 1988). Oosthuizen et al. (1988) also reported that a high number of sighted animals were tagged upon discovery, which would counter the likely overestimate of vagrant presence due to re-sightings of unmarked animals, although an unknown number of individuals probably go unnoticed.Occasionally, vagrant elephant seals may occupy beaches for a short period and create tremendous local interest. Recently an adult female southern elephant seal hauled out onto the popular Diaz tourist beach in Mossel Bay (34°09'32"S, 22°06'37"E) at 14:48 on 12 October 2010. The elephant seal had injuries which included a cut below the right eye (~5 cm) as well as through the left upper lip (~5 cm) and a tear on the lower abdomen (~15 cm) that did not penetrate very deeply (<5 cm). The abdominal wound was bleeding lightly on arrival on the first day, then stopped bleeding by that evening and the wounds appeared to be healing on the third day. She remained onshore for four days and was last seen at about 8:30 on 16 October.While on land, th...

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New records of southern elephant sealsMirounga leoninaL. on the coast of southern Africa

Cited by 14 publications

References 3 publications

Sightings of killer whalesOrcinus orcafrom longline vessels in South African waters, and consideration of the regional conservation status

Sightings of killer whalesOrcinus orcafrom longline vessels in South African waters, and consideration of the regional conservation status

Graham James Berry Ross 1945–2017

Vagrant Southern Elephant Seal and Human Disturbance in Mossel Bay, South Africa

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