Provincial Action Plan to minimize the gull-whale interaction

BERTELLOTTI, M.; FAZIO, A.

Puerto Madryn

Workshop; Southern Right Whale Die-Off and Kelp Gull Management. International Whalling Comision; 2014

International Whaling Comision - Cancillería Argentina

The alarming growth of gull attacks in whale watching areas, as well as the obvious generalization of this behavior, has led to the government authorities to define management actions to reduce these attacks. The implementation of a pilot project to minimize the impact of gulls on whales, through the culling of gull attackers was determined, with the consensus of the scientific community, members of NGOs and whale watching companies. The "PROVINCIAL ACTION PLAN TO MINIMIZE THE INTERACTION GULL-WHALE" to evaluate the feasibility of an experiment of culling of gulls and its effectiveness through monitoring the effect of this action in reducing the attack rate started in 2012, with the advice of the Centro Nacional Patagónico. Once solved the methodology (developed in 2012), the government authorities decided to continue the evaluation of the effect of culling gulls near the whale watching area, around Puerto Pirámides. During the 2013 season, 1230 gulls associated with whales were removed. Culling actions affected gulls attack in the area nearby Puerto Pirámides, decreasing the absolute value of the percentage of sightings with attacks, and the distribution of the attack rates along the whale season. But these actions seemed to have no effect in El Doradillo.