Short-term reaction of Southern Right Whale Eubalaena australis to whale watching vessels and notes on its current population status in San Matías Gulf (Patagonia, Argentina)

SVENDSEN, GUILLERMO; DANS, SILVANA; CURCIO, NADIA; COSCARELLA, MARIANO; ARIAS, MAGDALENA; GONZÁLEZ, RAÚL; ROMERO, MARÍA ALEJANDRA; CRESPO, ENRIQUE A.

Blend

Workshop; Workshop; 2016 Meeting of the IWC Scientific Committee; 2016

International Whaling Commission

Since 2012, an experimental program of whale watching tourism has been developing in the San Antonio Bay, Patagonia Argentina, with Southern Right Whale as the target species. The objective of this paper is to present information on the current status of Southern Right Whale in this new area of distribution and the preliminary results regarding the distribution, abundance and social structure in a context of population growth. There has been an increase in the number of whales, with a peak in late August-early September, a marked seasonality and a geographic trend with most of the whales distributed on the northwest area of San Matías Gulf. Solitary animals were the predominant group type. Also, to assess the impact of the whale watching activity, southern right whale watching tours were monitored and a characterization of the emerging activity and their change over the years was carried out. Whale watching mainly occurs on solitary animals and non social active groups. Different group types showed a different short-term reaction to the vessel. Breeding groups and non social active groups usually showed a neutral reaction, solitary animals showed predominantly evasive or approaching reaction, and for mother and calf pairs, the mother tended to stay neutral and when there was a reaction, it was usually evasive. The results of this study have significant implications for whale watching regulations in this new area of distribution.