Habitat selection of Southern Right Whales (Eubalaena australis) in the breeding ground Peninsula Valdés.

SUEYRO, NICOLÁS; PENNINO, MARIA GRAZIA; CRESPO, E. A.; COSCARELLA, M. A.

Cambridge - Virtual

Congreso; 68°C Annual Meeting of the International Whaling Commission; 2021

International Whaling Commission

The Southern Right Whale (Eubalaena australis) was the object of a commercial exploitation until the mid of the XX century, that brought this species to the brink of extinction. The species was protected globally in 1986 and since this moratorium entered into force, populations throughout the southern hemisphere have been recovering at an 8% annual rate. Even so, in Peninsula Valdés (Argentina) it has been observed that the growth rate is decreasing in recent years from near 7% in 2007 to a 0.06% for 2016. In this breeding ground also changes in distribution and group composition have been reported, with mother and calves remaining close to the shore and solitary individuals relocating to deeper waters or to other coastal areas outside Península Valdés. We use SDMs to predict the SRW distribution in the Peninsula Valdés incorporating environmental data and records collected by the CENPAT Marine Mammal Laboratory in four different periods: 1999-2000, 2004-2007, 2008-2012 and 2013-2016. Predictions maps were then used to assess if there was a shift of the SRW distribution in the Peninsula Valdés trough the time and if it was related to population growth. Roughness of the seabed, bathymetry and wave energy were used as potential predictors for selection of Southern Right Whales. Bayesian hierarchical spatial model (BHSM) were applied to identify which environmental variables mostly affect their distribution in northern Patagonia and to predict their probability of occurrence in un-sampled locations.