Scholars@Duke
Andrew J Read

Andrew J Read

Stephen A. Toth Distinguished Professor of Marine Biology in the Nicholas School of the Environment
Marine Science and Conservation
aread@duke.edu
135 Duke Marine Lab Rd, Beaufort, NC 28516

Selected Publications

Mexico must save the vaquita from gill nets.

Journal Article Science (New York, N.Y.) · August 2024 Full text Cite

Historical baleen plates indicate that once abundant Antarctic blue and fin whales demonstrated distinct migratory and foraging strategies.

Journal Article Ecology and evolution · May 2024 Southern hemisphere blue (Balaenoptera musculus intermedia) and fin (Balaenoptera physalus) whales are the largest predators in the Southern Ocean, with similarities in morphology and distribution. Yet, understanding of their life history and ... Full text Cite

Bycatch in drift gillnet fisheries: A sink for Indian Ocean cetaceans

Journal Article Conservation Letters · March 1, 2024 In 1992, the UN banned the use of large-scale pelagic driftnets on the high seas (UNGA Resolution 46/215). Three decades later, however, drift gillnets remain one of the primary fishing gears in the Indian Ocean, accounting for approximately 30% of tuna ca ... Full text Cite

Aerobic dive limit in short-finned pilot whales Globicephala macrorhynchus: an assessment of behavioral criteria

Journal Article Marine Ecology Progress Series · January 1, 2024 Aerobic dive limits (ADLs) are a useful paradigm for assessing marine mammal diving ability. Given the allometry of total body oxygen stores and metabolic rate, larger animals should have increased diving capacities and thus elevated ADLs. The short-finned ... Full text Cite

Overwintering humpback whales adapt foraging strategies to shallow water environments at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, Virginia, USA

Journal Article Marine Mammal Science · January 1, 2024 Some humpback whales from the Northwestern Atlantic population forgo migration to the Caribbean, spending winter months feeding along the U.S. mid-Atlantic coast. We studied the foraging behavior of these whales at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, Virginia ... Full text Cite

Trade-offs in telemetry tag programming for deep-diving cetaceans: data longevity, resolution, and continuity

Journal Article Animal Biotelemetry · December 1, 2023 Background: Animal-borne telemetry instruments (tags) have greatly advanced our understanding of species that are challenging to observe. Recently, non-recoverable instruments attached to cetaceans have increased in use, but these devices have limitations ... Full text Cite

Observed trends in scavenging by common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus truncatus) in for-hire fisheries in the eastern U.S. Gulf of Mexico

Journal Article Marine Mammal Science · October 1, 2023 Interactions between bottlenose dolphin and recreational rod and reel fisheries are a complex issue for resource managers in the United States, which may impact anglers' catch and lead to dangerous situations for scavenging or depredating dolphins. To exam ... Full text Cite

The ecology of whales in a changing climate.

Journal Article Science (New York, N.Y.) · October 2023 Some whale populations are exhibiting unexpected cycles of boom and bust. ... Full text Open Access Cite

Tight spatial coupling of a marine predator with soniferous fishes: Using joint modelling to aid in ecosystem approaches to management

Journal Article Diversity and Distributions · August 1, 2023 Aim: Understanding the distribution of marine organisms is essential for effective management of highly mobile marine predators that face a variety of anthropogenic threats. Recent work has largely focused on modelling the distribution and abundance of mar ... Full text Cite

A surplus no more? Variation in krill availability impacts reproductive rates of Antarctic baleen whales.

Journal Article Global change biology · April 2023 The krill surplus hypothesis of unlimited prey resources available for Antarctic predators due to commercial whaling in the 20th century has remained largely untested since the 1970s. Rapid warming of the Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) over the past 50  ... Full text Cite

No free lunch: estimating the biomass and ex-vessel value of target catch lost to depredation by odontocetes in the Hawai’i longline tuna fishery

Journal Article Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences · January 1, 2023 Depredation by marine predators causes economic losses and impacts depredating species and fish stocks. To understand these impacts, it is important to accurately estimate catch losses from depredation. Pelagic longline fisheries are susceptible to depreda ... Full text Cite

Seasonal gain in body condition of foraging humpback whales along the Western Antarctic Peninsula

Journal Article Frontiers in Marine Science · November 21, 2022 Most baleen whales are capital breeders that use stored energy acquired on foraging grounds to finance the costs of migration and reproduction on breeding grounds. Body condition reflects past foraging success and can act as a proxy for individual fitness. ... Full text Cite

Demography of an ice-obligate mysticete in a region of rapid environmental change.

Journal Article Royal Society open science · November 2022 Antarctic minke whales (Balaenoptera bonaerensis, AMW) are an abundant, ice-dependent species susceptible to rapid climatic changes occurring in parts of the Antarctic. Here, we used remote biopsy samples and estimates of length derived from unoccup ... Full text Cite

Short-finned pilot whales exhibit behavioral plasticity in foraging strategies mediated by their environment

Journal Article Marine Ecology Progress Series · August 25, 2022 Predators adapt their foraging behavior to exploit a variety of prey in a range of environments. Short-finned pilot whales are wide-ranging predators in tropical and sub-tropical oceans, but most previous studies of their foraging ecology have been conduct ... Full text Cite

Intra-seasonal variation in feeding rates and diel foraging behaviour in a seasonally fasting mammal, the humpback whale.

Journal Article Royal Society open science · July 2022 Antarctic humpback whales forage in summer, coincident with the seasonal abundance of their primary prey, the Antarctic krill. During the feeding season, humpback whales accumulate energy stores sufficient to fuel their fasting period lasting over six mont ... Full text Cite

Network analysis of sea turtle movements and connectivity: A tool for conservation prioritization

Journal Article Diversity and Distributions · April 1, 2022 Aim: Understanding the spatial ecology of animal movements is a critical element in conserving long-lived, highly mobile marine species. Analyzing networks developed from movements of six sea turtle species reveals marine connectivity and can help prioriti ... Full text Open Access Cite

Dynamic body acceleration as a proxy to predict the cost of locomotion in bottlenose dolphins.

Journal Article The Journal of experimental biology · February 2022 Estimates of the energetic costs of locomotion (COL) at different activity levels are necessary to answer fundamental eco-physiological questions and to understand the impacts of anthropogenic disturbance to marine mammals. We combined estimates of energet ... Full text Cite

A Stampede of Risso’s Dolphins (Grampus griseus) Following Playbacks of the Calls of Mammal-Eating Killer Whales

Journal Article Aquatic Mammals · January 1, 2022 During our respective careers, we have been fortunate to witness some dramatic observations of animal behavior in the field, but it can be difficult to portray the intensity of these events with the sterile prose we typically employ in scientific manuscrip ... Full text Open Access Cite

First description of migratory behavior of humpback whales from an Antarctic feeding ground to a tropical calving ground

Journal Article Animal Biotelemetry · December 1, 2021 Background: Despite exhibiting one of the longest migrations in the world, half of the humpback whale migratory cycle has remained unexamined. Until now, no study has provided a continuous description of humpback whale migratory behavior from a feeding gro ... Full text Cite

Comparing Uncertainty Associated With 1-, 2-, and 3D Aerial Photogrammetry-Based Body Condition Measurements of Baleen Whales

Journal Article Frontiers in Marine Science · November 26, 2021 Body condition is a crucial and indicative measure of an animal’s fitness, reflecting overall foraging success, habitat quality, and balance between energy intake and energetic investment toward growth, maintenance, and reproduction. Recently, drone-based ... Full text Cite

Illegal fisheries, environmental crime, and the conservation of marine resources.

Journal Article Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology · August 2021 The illegal harvest of marine species within exclusive economic zones can have a strong impact on the function of local ecosystems and livelihoods of coastal communities. The complexity of these problems is often overlooked in the development of solutions, ... Full text Cite

Patterns of depredation in the Hawai‘i deep-set longline fishery informed by fishery and false killer whale behavior

Journal Article Ecosphere · August 1, 2021 False killer whales (Pseudorca crassidens) depredate bait and catch in the Hawai‘i-based deep-set longline fishery, and as a result, this species is hooked or entangled more than any other cetacean in this fishery. We analyzed data collected by fisheries o ... Full text Cite

Adult male Cuvier's beaked whales (Ziphius cavirostris) engage in prolonged bouts of synchronous diving

Journal Article Marine Mammal Science · July 1, 2021 Studies of the social behavior of Cuvier's beaked whales (Ziphius cavirostris) are challenging because of their deep-water habitat usually far from shore and the limited time they spend at the surface. The sociality of these deepest diving mammals is of in ... Full text Cite

Empty promises: The European Union is failing to protect dolphins and porpoises from fisheries by-catch

Journal Article Fish and Fisheries · July 1, 2021 By-catch is the primary global conservation threat to populations of dolphins and porpoises. Despite protection for these protected species under its Habitats Directive, the European Union (EU) has failed to adequately assess and, where necessary, mitigate ... Full text Cite

The Challenges of Managing Depredation and Bycatch of Toothed Whales in Pelagic Longline Fisheries: Two U.S. Case Studies

Journal Article Frontiers in Marine Science · February 26, 2021 Direct interactions with fisheries are broadly recognized as the leading conservation threat to small cetaceans. In open-ocean environments, one of the primary gear types implicated in these interactions is the pelagic longline. Unlike accidental entanglem ... Full text Cite

The impact of temperature at depth on estimates of thermal habitat for short-finned pilot whales

Journal Article Marine Mammal Science · January 1, 2021 Short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus) experience dramatic changes in temperature during deep dives, but studies of pilot whale habitat use typically rely solely on surface temperature measurements. We quantified vertically integrated therm ... Full text Cite

Residency and movement patterns of Cuvier's beaked whales Ziphius cavirostris off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, USA

Journal Article Marine Ecology Progress Series · January 1, 2021 Cuvier's beaked whales Ziphius cavirostris are wide-ranging, deep-diving cetaceans that are particularly sensitive to anthropogenic noise. Current stock assessments assume a single population in the western North Atlantic Ocean, but knowledge of the reside ... Full text Cite

Sympatry and resource partitioning between the largest krill consumers around the Antarctic Peninsula

Journal Article Marine Ecology Progress Series · January 1, 2021 Understanding how closely related, sympatric species distribute themselves relative to their environment is critical to understanding ecosystem structure and function and predicting effects of environmental variation. The Antarctic Peninsula supports high ... Full text Open Access Cite

Exploring movement patterns and changing distributions of baleen whales in the western North Atlantic using a decade of passive acoustic data.

Journal Article Global change biology · September 2020 Six baleen whale species are found in the temperate western North Atlantic Ocean, with limited information existing on the distribution and movement patterns for most. There is mounting evidence of distributional shifts in many species, including marine ma ... Full text Cite

Extreme diving in mammals: first estimates of behavioural aerobic dive limits in Cuvier's beaked whales.

Journal Article The Journal of experimental biology · September 2020 We analysed 3680 dives from 23 satellite-linked tags deployed on Cuvier's beaked whales to assess the relationship between long duration dives and inter-deep dive intervals and to estimate aerobic dive limit (ADL). The median duration of presumed foraging ... Full text Open Access Cite

Bioengineering a Future Free of Marine Plastic Waste

Journal Article Frontiers in Marine Science · October 11, 2019 Plastic waste has reached epidemic proportions worldwide, and the production of plastic continues to rise steadily. Plastic represents a diverse array of commonly used synthetic polymers that are extremely useful as durable, economically beneficial alterna ... Full text Cite

Likely annual calving in the vaquita, Phocoena sinus: A new hope?

Journal Article Marine Mammal Science · October 1, 2019 Full text Cite

Predicting fisheries bycatch: A case study and field test for pilot whales in a pelagic longline fishery

Journal Article Diversity and Distributions · June 1, 2019 Aim: Fisheries bycatch is a major threat to populations of protected species such as marine mammals, seabirds and sea turtles, and static management approaches are often unsuccessful in mitigating bycatch of these highly mobile species. Combining species d ... Full text Cite

Mind the gap - Optimizing satellite tag settings for time series analysis of foraging dives in Cuvier's beaked whales (Ziphius cavirostris)

Journal Article Animal Biotelemetry · March 15, 2019 Background: Studies of deep-diving beaked whales using Argos satellite-linked location-depth tags frequently return data with large gaps in the diving record. We document the steps taken to eliminate these data gaps and collect weeks of continuous time ser ... Full text Cite

Diving behaviour of Cuvier's beaked whales (Ziphius cavirostris) off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

Journal Article Royal Society open science · February 2019 Cuvier's beaked whales exhibit exceptionally long and deep foraging dives. The species is little studied due to their deep-water, offshore distribution and limited time spent at the surface. We used LIMPET satellite tags to study the diving behaviour of Cu ... Full text Cite

A field effort to capture critically endangered vaquitas Phocoena sinus for protection from entanglement in illegal gillnets

Journal Article Endangered Species Research · January 1, 2019 In 2017 an emergency field effort was undertaken in an attempt to prevent the extinction of the world's most endangered marine mammal, the vaquita Phocoena sinus. The rescue effort involved 90 experts from 9 countries and cost US$ 5 million. Following a lo ... Full text Cite

Critical information gaps remain in understanding impacts of industrial seismic surveys on marine vertebrates

Journal Article Endangered Species Research · January 1, 2019 Anthropogenic noise is increasing throughout the world's oceans. One major contributor is industrial seismic surveys-a process typically undertaken to locate and estimate the quantity of oil and gas deposits beneath the seafloor-which, in recent years, has ... Full text Open Access Cite

Bycatch ingillnet fisheries threatens critically endangeredsmall cetaceansand other aquatic megafauna

Journal Article Endangered Species Research · January 1, 2019 The conservation status of small cetaceans has significantly worsened since the 1980s, when the baiji was the only species of small cetacean listed as Endangered by IUCN. Now the baiji is almost certainly extinct and 13 other species, subspecies, or popula ... Full text Cite

Spatiotemporal patterns of overlap between short-finned pilot whales and the U.S. pelagic longline fishery in the Mid-Atlantic Bight: An assessment to inform the management of fisheries bycatch

Journal Article Fisheries Research · December 1, 2018 Short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus) depredate pelagic longlines along the shelf break of the Mid-Atlantic Bight. The mortality and serious injury of short-finned pilot whales in the U.S. pelagic longline fishery recently exceeded Potenti ... Full text Cite

Distribution and abundance of beaked whales (Family Ziphiidae) Off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, U.S.A.

Journal Article Marine Mammal Science · October 1, 2018 Beaked whales are vulnerable to the impacts of disturbance from several sources of anthropogenic sound. Here we report the distribution and abundance of beaked whales off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, U.S.A., an area utilized by the U.S. Navy for training ... Full text Cite

Selective reactions to different killer whale call categories in two delphinid species.

Journal Article The Journal of experimental biology · June 2018 The risk of predation is often invoked as an important factor influencing the evolution of social organization in cetaceans, but little direct information is available about how these aquatic mammals respond to predators or other perceived threats. We used ... Full text Cite

High pregnancy rates in humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) around the Western Antarctic Peninsula, evidence of a rapidly growing population.

Journal Article Royal Society open science · May 2018 Antarctic humpback whales are recovering from near extirpation from commercial whaling. To understand the dynamics of this recovery and establish a baseline to monitor impacts of a rapidly changing environment, we investigated sex ratios and pregnancy rate ... Full text Cite

Are the ghosts of nature's past haunting ecology today?

Journal Article Current biology : CB · May 2018 Humans have decimated populations of large-bodied consumers and their functions in most of the world's ecosystems. It is less clear how human activities have affected the diversity of habitats these consumers occupy. Rebounding populations of some predator ... Full text Open Access Cite

Two-component calls in short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus)

Journal Article Marine Mammal Science · January 1, 2018 Short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus) have complex vocal repertoires that include calls with two time-frequency contours known as two-component calls. We attached digital acoustic recording tags (DTAGs) to 23 short-finned pilot whales off ... Full text Link to item Cite

Marine mammals and sonar: Dose-response studies, the risk-disturbance hypothesis and the role of exposure context

Journal Article Journal of Applied Ecology · January 1, 2018 Marine mammals may be negatively affected by anthropogenic noise. Behavioural response studies (BRS) aim to establish a relationship between noise exposure conditions (dose) from a potential stressor and associated behavioural responses of animals. A recen ... Full text Cite

Spatial and seasonal patterns in acoustic detections of sperm whales Physeter macrocephalus along the continental slope in the western North Atlantic Ocean

Journal Article Endangered Species Research · January 1, 2018 The distribution and seasonal movements of sperm whales Physeter macrocephalus are poorly understood in the western North Atlantic Ocean, despite a long history of human exploitation of the species. Cetacean surveys in this region are typically conducted d ... Full text Cite

Movement and foraging behavior of short-finned pilot whales in the Mid-Atlantic Bight: Importance of bathymetric features and implications for management

Journal Article Marine Ecology Progress Series · December 7, 2017 Shelf break systems are ecologically important regions of the ocean, and are often characterized by enhanced productivity and high densities of species from lower to upper trophic levels. Along with associated submarine canyons, shelf break regions provide ... Full text Cite

Movements and home ranges of monk seals in the main Hawaiian Islands

Journal Article Marine Mammal Science · October 1, 2017 Hawaiian monk seals (Neomonachus schauinslandi) began recolonizing the main Hawaiian Islands (MHI) roughly 20 yr ago. The species’ abundance is still declining, but the subpopulation in the MHI is increasing by 6.5% per year. This difference may be due to ... Full text Cite

Long-term passive acoustic recordings track the changing distribution of North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) from 2004 to 2014.

Journal Article Scientific reports · October 2017 Given new distribution patterns of the endangered North Atlantic right whale (NARW; Eubalaena glacialis) population in recent years, an improved understanding of spatio-temporal movements are imperative for the conservation of this species. While so far vi ... Full text Cite

Integrating multiple technologies to understand the foraging behaviour of Hawaiian monk seals.

Journal Article Royal Society open science · March 2017 The objective of this research was to investigate and describe the foraging behaviour of monk seals in the main Hawaiian Islands. Specifically, our goal was to identify a metric to classify foraging behaviour from telemetry instruments. We deployed acceler ... Full text Cite

Effects of a scientific echo sounder on the behavior of short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus)

Journal Article Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences · January 1, 2017 Active echo sounding devices are often employed for commercial or scientific purposes in the foraging habitats of marine mammals. We conducted an experiment off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, USA, to assess whether the behavior of short-finned pilot whales ... Full text Cite

Nowhere to go: Noise impact assessments for marine mammal populations with high site fidelity

Journal Article Endangered Species Research · January 1, 2017 As awareness of the effects of anthropogenic noise on marine mammals has grown, research has broadened from evaluating physiological responses, including injury and mortality, to considering effects on behavior and acoustic communication. Most mitigation e ... Full text Cite

Using passive acoustic monitoring to document the distribution of beaked whale species in the western north atlantic ocean

Journal Article Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences · January 1, 2017 Little is known about the ecology of many beaked whale species, despite concerns raised by mass strandings linked to certain sources of anthropogenic noise. Here, we used passive acoustic monitoring to examine spatial and temporal patterns in beaked whale ... Full text Open Access Cite

Biotelemetry

Chapter · January 1, 2017 Telemetry is the process of obtaining data remotely, by transmitting information from an animal or by storing it for later retrieval. The field of telemetry with respect to marine mammals has included a number of research approaches, from simple radio tags ... Full text Cite

Porpoises, Overview

Chapter · January 1, 2017 The porpoises consist of seven extant species in the family Phocoenidae, and representatives of the family occur in both hemispheres in pelagic, coastal, and riverine habitats. Porpoises are among the smallest cetaceans and represent an interesting evoluti ... Full text Cite

Effects of duty-cycled passive acoustic recordings on detecting the presence of beaked whales in the northwest Atlantic.

Journal Article The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · July 2016 This study investigated the effects of using duty-cycled passive acoustic recordings to monitor the daily presence of beaked whale species at three locations in the northwest Atlantic. Continuous acoustic records were subsampled to simulate duty cycles of ... Full text Cite

Multiple-stage decisions in a marine central-place forager.

Journal Article Royal Society open science · May 2016 Air-breathing marine animals face a complex set of physical challenges associated with diving that affect the decisions of how to optimize feeding. Baleen whales (Mysticeti) have evolved bulk-filter feeding mechanisms to efficiently feed on dense prey patc ... Full text Cite

The Challenges of Analyzing Behavioral Response Study Data: An Overview of the MOCHA (Multi-study OCean Acoustics Human Effects Analysis) Project.

Chapter · January 2016 This paper describes the MOCHA project which aims to develop novel approaches for the analysis of data collected during Behavioral Response Studies (BRSs). BRSs are experiments aimed at directly quantifying the effects of controlled dosages of natural or a ... Full text Cite

Evaluating the efficacy of environmental legislation: A case study from the US marine mammal Take Reduction Planning process

Journal Article Global Ecology and Conservation · January 1, 2016 There have been limited efforts to evaluate the efficacy of environmental management programs, in part because environmental legislation often lacks objective, quantifiable criteria to use in such assessments. Here we evaluate the ecological outcomes of an ... Full text Cite

Genomewide investigation of adaptation to harmful algal blooms in common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus).

Journal Article Molecular ecology · September 2015 Harmful algal blooms (HABs), which can be lethal in marine species and cause illness in humans, are increasing worldwide. In the Gulf of Mexico, HABs of Karenia brevis produce neurotoxic brevetoxins that cause large-scale marine mortality events. The long ... Full text Cite

Lifting baselines to address the consequences of conservation success.

Journal Article Trends in ecology & evolution · June 2015 Biologists and policymakers are accustomed to managing species in decline, but for the first time in generations they are also encountering recovering populations of ocean predators. Many citizens perceive these species as invaders and conflicts are increa ... Full text Cite

Longline hook testing in the mouths of pelagic odontocetes

Journal Article ICES Journal of Marine Science · April 23, 2015 Several species of odontocete cetaceans depredate bait and catch and, as a result, become hooked and entangled in pelagic longline fisheries. The present study measured how selected commercial longline hooks, including "weak hooks", behaved within odontoce ... Full text Cite

From genome-wide to candidate gene: an investigation of variation at the major histocompatibility complex in common bottlenose dolphins exposed to harmful algal blooms.

Journal Article Immunogenetics · February 2015 The role the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) plays in response to exposure to environmental toxins is relatively poorly understood, particularly in comparison to its well-described role in pathogen immunity. We investigated associations between MHC ... Full text Cite

Recommendations for photo-identification methods used in capture-recapture models with cetaceans

Journal Article Marine Mammal Science · January 1, 2015 Capture-recapture methods are frequently employed to estimate abundance of cetaceans using photographic techniques and a variety of statistical models. However, there are many unresolved issues regarding the selection and manipulation of images that can po ... Full text Cite

Field assessment of C-POD performance in detecting echolocation click trains of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus)

Journal Article Marine Mammal Science · January 1, 2015 We evaluated the performance of dolphin echolocation detectors (C-PODs) in the New River, North Carolina, by ground-truthing echolocation detections with digital acoustic recordings. We deployed C-PODs at three sites for a total of 204 monitoring hours. We ... Full text Cite

Trends in Stranding and By-Catch Rates of Gray and Harbor Seals along the Northeastern Coast of the United States: Evidence of Divergence in the Abundance of Two Sympatric Phocid Species?

Journal Article PloS one · January 2015 Harbor seals and gray seals are sympatric phocid pinnipeds found in coastal waters of the temperate and sub-Arctic North Atlantic. In the Northwest Atlantic, both species were depleted through a combination of subsistence hunts and government supported bou ... Full text Cite

Lack of variation in voltage-gated sodium channels of common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) exposed to neurotoxic algal blooms.

Journal Article Aquatic toxicology (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · December 2014 In coastal marine ecosystems, neurotoxins produced by harmful algal blooms (HABs) often result in large-scale mortality events of many marine species. Historical and frequent exposure to HABs therefore may provide a strong selective pressure for adaptation ... Full text Cite

A novel approach to compare pinniped populations across a broad geographic range

Journal Article Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences · September 18, 2014 Weutilized aerial images and employed photogrammetric methodologies to collect standardized lengths of Steller sea lions (Eumetopias jubatus) terrestrially hauled out. We conducted comparisons among all site types and separately for rookery and haulout sit ... Full text Cite

Feeding rates and under-ice foraging strategies of the smallest lunge filter feeder, the Antarctic minke whale (Balaenoptera bonaerensis).

Journal Article The Journal of experimental biology · August 2014 Body size and feeding mode are two fundamental characteristics that determine foraging performance and ecological niche. As the smallest obligate lunge filter feeders, minke whales represent an ideal system for studying the physical and energetic limits of ... Full text Cite

Global patterns of marine mammal, seabird, and sea turtle bycatch reveal taxa-specific and cumulative megafauna hotspots.

Journal Article Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · April 2014 Recent research on ocean health has found large predator abundance to be a key element of ocean condition. Fisheries can impact large predator abundance directly through targeted capture and indirectly through incidental capture of nontarget species or byc ... Full text Cite

Will a catch share for whales improve social welfare?

Journal Article Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America · January 2014 We critique a proposal to use catch shares to manage transboundary wildlife resources with potentially high non-extractive values, and we focus on the case of whales. Because whales are impure public goods, a policy that fails to capture all nonmarket bene ... Full text Open Access Cite

Integration of passive acoustic monitoring data into OBIS-SEAMAP, a global biogeographic database, to advance spatially-explicit ecological assessments

Journal Article Ecological Informatics · January 1, 2014 We successfully developed an extension of the OBIS-SEAMAP database, a global biogeographic database specializing in marine mammals, seabirds and sea turtles, to integrate passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) data with other commonly collected data types (i.e. ... Full text Cite

Mysterious bio-duck sound attributed to the Antarctic minke whale (Balaenoptera bonaerensis).

Journal Article Biology letters · January 2014 For decades, the bio-duck sound has been recorded in the Southern Ocean, but the animal producing it has remained a mystery. Heard mainly during austral winter in the Southern Ocean, this ubiquitous sound has been recorded in Antarctic waters and contempor ... Full text Cite

Seasonal migrations of North Atlantic minke whales: novel insights from large-scale passive acoustic monitoring networks.

Journal Article Movement ecology · January 2014 BackgroundLittle is known about migration patterns and seasonal distribution away from coastal summer feeding habitats of many pelagic baleen whales. Recently, large-scale passive acoustic monitoring networks have become available to explore migra ... Full text Cite

Occurrence, distribution and abundance of cetaceans in Onslow Bay, North Carolina, USA

Journal Article Journal of Cetacean Research and Management · January 1, 2014 In this paper the occurrence, distribution and abundance of cetaceans in offshore waters of Onslow Bay, North Carolina, USA is described. Between June 2007 and June 2010 monthly aerial and shipboard line-transect surveys were conducted along ten 74km trans ... Cite

Extreme diel variation in the feeding behavior of humpback whales along the western Antarctic Peninsula during autumn

Journal Article Marine Ecology Progress Series · December 4, 2013 ABSTRACT: Most humpback whale Megaptera novaeangliae populations partition their time between prey-rich feeding and prey-deficient breeding/calving regions. How these whales feed and optimize the consumption of prey resources prior to long-distance migrati ... Full text Cite

Food habits of Sowerby's beaked whales (Mesoplodon bidens) taken in the pelagic drift gillnet fishery of the western North Atlantic

Journal Article Fishery Bulletin · October 4, 2013 We describe the food habits of the Sowerby's beaked whale (Mesoplodon bidens) from observations of 10 individuals taken as bycatch in the pelagic drift gillnet fishery for Swordfish (Xiphias gladius) in the western North Atlantic and 1 stranded individual ... Full text Cite

The influence of habitat and time of day on the occurrence of odontocete vocalizations in Onslow Bay, North Carolina

Journal Article Marine Mammal Science · October 1, 2013 To determine whether the occurrence and duration of odontocete vocal events varied by depth or time of day in Onslow Bay, North Carolina, we analyzed acoustic data collected by five underwater recorders. These recorders were deployed in July 2008 at three ... Full text Cite

Fine-scale biophysical interactions drive prey availability at a migratory stopover site for Phalaropus spp. in the Bay of Fundy, Canada

Journal Article Marine Ecology Progress Series · July 30, 2013 We examined the role of biophysical interactions in structuring the foraging habitat of phalaropes Phalaropus spp. at an important migratory stopover site in the Bay of Fundy. We sampled both biological and physical aspects of the environment and integrate ... Full text Cite

The Marine Mammal Protection Act at 40: status, recovery, and future of U.S. marine mammals.

Journal Article Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · May 2013 Passed in 1972, the Marine Mammal Protection Act has two fundamental objectives: to maintain U.S. marine mammal stocks at their optimum sustainable populations and to uphold their ecological role in the ocean. The current status of many marine mammal popul ... Full text Cite

Mitigation of marine mammal bycatch in U.S. fisheries since 1994

Journal Article Biological Conservation · March 1, 2013 Bycatch in fishing gear is one of the most pressing conservation issues facing marine mammals today. In the United States a formal regime to address bycatch of marine mammals was adopted in 1994 as Amendments to the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA). Thi ... Full text Cite

Development of conservation strategies to mitigate the bycatch of harbor porpoises in the Gulf of Maine

Journal Article Endangered Species Research · January 1, 2013 In this paper I review the development of conservation strategies to address the bycatch of harbor porpoises Phocoena phocoena in Gulf of Maine gillnet fisheries from 1982, when bycatches were first detected, until a Take Reduction Plan was implemented in ... Full text Cite

To ping or not to ping: The use of active acoustic devices in mitigating interactions between small cetaceans and gillnet fisheries

Journal Article Endangered Species Research · January 1, 2013 Active sound emitters ('pingers') are used in several gillnet fisheries to reduce bycatch of small cetaceans, and/or to reduce depredation by dolphins. Here, we review studies conducted to determine how effective these devices may be as management tools. S ... Full text Cite

A field test of acoustic deterrent devices used to reduce interactions between bottlenose dolphins and a coastal gillnet fishery

Journal Article Biological Conservation · January 1, 2013 Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) interact frequently with gillnet fisheries throughout their range. These interactions, which include the depredation of captured fish, can have deleterious impacts on both dolphins and fishermen. Acoustic deterrent ... Full text Cite

Initial density estimates of humpback whales Megaptera novaeangliae in the inshore waters of the western Antarctic Peninsula during the late autumn

Journal Article Endangered Species Research · August 20, 2012 In the Southern Ocean, humpback whales Megaptera novaeangliae were depleted by commercial whaling operations during the 20th century, but many populations now appear to be recovering. Previous surveys of whale distribution along the western Antarctic Penin ... Full text Cite

Hawaii longline tuna fishery temporal trends in standardized catch rates and length distributions and effects on pelagic and seamount ecosystems

Journal Article Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems · June 1, 2012 Declines in absolute abundance and altered size distributions from size-selective removals of market species of pelagic apex predators in tuna fisheries alters evolutionary characteristics of populations and ecosystem processes and stability. Pelagic fishi ... Full text Cite

Managing for extinction? Conflicting conservation objectives in a large marine reserve

Journal Article Conservation Letters · December 1, 2011 Establishment of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument (PMNM) in 2006 was heralded as a major advance for marine conservation. The PMNM is one of the largest no-take marine reserves in the world (36,207,439 hectares) and includes all of the Northw ... Full text Cite

Designing criteria suites to identify discrete and networked sites of high value across manifestations of biodiversity

Journal Article Biodivers Conserv. · December 2011 Suites of criteria specifying ecological, biological, social, economic, and governance properties enable the systematic identification of sites and networks of high biodiversity value, and can support balancing ecological and socioeconomic objectives of bi ... Full text Cite

Super-aggregations of krill and humpback whales in Wilhelmina Bay, Antarctic Peninsula.

Journal Article PloS one · April 2011 Ecological relationships of krill and whales have not been explored in the Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP), and have only rarely been studied elsewhere in the Southern Ocean. In the austral autumn we observed an extremely high density (5.1 whales per km( ... Full text Cite

Underestimating the damage: Interpreting cetacean carcass recoveries in the context of the Deepwater Horizon/BP incident

Journal Article Conservation Letters · January 1, 2011 Evaluating impacts of human activities on marine ecosystems is difficult when effects occur out of plain sight. Oil spill severity is often measured by the number of marine birds and mammals killed, but only a small fraction of carcasses are recovered. The ... Full text Cite

Community structure in pelagic marine mammals at large spatial scales as revealed by multivariate ordination

Journal Article Marine Ecology Progress Series · 2011 The understanding of a species’ niche is fundamental to the concept of ecology, yet relatively little work has been done on niches in pelagic marine mammal communities. Data collection on the distribution and abundance of marine mammals is costly, time con ... Full text Link to item Cite

Community structure in pelagic marine mammals at large spatial scales

Journal Article Marine Ecology Progress Series · 2011 Cite

Spatio-temporal gap analysis of OBIS-SEAMAP project data: assessment and way forward.

Journal Article PloS one · September 2010 The OBIS-SEAMAP project has acquired and served high-quality marine mammal, seabird, and sea turtle data to the public since its inception in 2002. As data accumulated, spatial and temporal biases resulted and a comprehensive gap analysis was needed in ord ... Full text Cite

Confronting the gauntlet: Understanding incidental capture of green turtles through fine-scale movement studies

Journal Article Endangered Species Research · May 20, 2010 We conducted a 2 yr study of small juvenile green sea turtles Chelonia mydas in an estuary in North Carolina, USA, to examine how turtle behavior affected their vulnerability to incidental capture in an artisanal gill net fishery. We used sonic and satelli ... Full text Cite

Stable isotopes confirm a foraging dichotomy in juvenile loggerhead sea turtles

Journal Article Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology · May 15, 2010 Differential habitat use and foraging behaviors at various life-stages within a population can have profound consequences for survivorship, stage duration, and time to maturity. While evidence for plasticity within a given life-stage in marine species is m ... Full text Cite

An interview-based approach to assess marine mammal and sea turtle captures in artisanal fisheries

Journal Article Biological Conservation · March 1, 2010 Recent case studies have highlighted high bycatch mortality of sea turtles and marine mammals in artisanal fisheries, but in most countries there are few data on artisanal fishing effort, catch, or bycatch. With artisanal fisheries comprising >95% of the w ... Full text Cite

Porpoises, Overview

Journal Article · December 1, 2009 This chapter discusses the origin, morphology, ecology, behavior, and conservation of porpoises. The porpoises are 1 of 10 families that constitute the suborder Odontoceti, or the modern toothed whales. The family Phocoenidae consists of six species, distr ... Full text Cite

Telemetry

Journal Article · December 1, 2009 This chapter discusses telemetry, which is a process of obtaining data remotely, by transmitting information from a marine mammal or by storing it for later retrieval. The field of telemetry includes a number of research approaches, from simple radio tags ... Full text Cite

Where to catch a fish? the influence of foraging tactics on the ecology of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) in Florida Bay, Florida

Journal Article Marine Mammal Science · October 1, 2009 Observations of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) in Florida Bay, Florida, between 2002 and 2005 revealed the use of three distinct foraging tactics. The goal of this study was to identify ecological correlates with tactic use and describe the impac ... Full text Cite

Lessons from Japanese markets for the conservation of whale populations

Journal Article Animal Conservation · October 1, 2009 Full text Cite

Fine-scale population structure of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) in tampa bay, Florida

Journal Article Marine Mammal Science · July 1, 2009 Some populations of coastal bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) comprise discrete communities, defined by patterns of social association and long-term site fidelity. We tested the hypothesis that bottlenose dolphins in Tampa Bay, Florida, form a singl ... Full text Cite

OBIS-SEAMAP: The world data center for marine mammal, sea bird, and sea turtle distributions

Journal Article Oceanography · June 1, 2009 The science needed to understand highly migratory marine mammal, sea bird, and sea turtle species is not adequately addressed by individual data collections developed for a single region or single time period. These data must be brought together into a com ... Full text Cite

Hydrodredge: Reducing the negative impacts of scallop dredging

Journal Article Fisheries Research · January 14, 2009 Scallop dredges typically use teeth or a cutting bar to dig though the sediment and are associated with detrimental impacts on marine benthos. A low-impact 'Hydrodredge' was tested that uses 'cups' to deflect water downward in a turbulent wave sufficient t ... Full text Cite

Population structure of short-beaked common dolphins (Delphinus delphis) in the North Atlantic Ocean as revealed by mitochondrial and nuclear genetic markers

Journal Article Marine Biology · January 1, 2009 The understanding of population structure and gene flow of marine pelagic species is paramount to monitoring, management and conservation studies. Such studies are often hampered by the potentially high dispersal behavior of the species, the lack of obviou ... Full text Cite

Stable isotopes and telemetry reveal life history dichotomy in juvenile loggerhead sea turtles

Journal Article Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology · 2009 Cite

Community structure in pelagic marine mammals

Journal Article Ecological Applications · 2009 Cite

Striking the right balance in right whale conservation

Journal Article Canadian Journal of Fisheries & Aquatic Sciences · 2009 Cite

Fine-scale habitat modeling of a top marine predator: do prey data improve predictive capacity?

Journal Article Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America · October 2008 Predators and prey assort themselves relative to each other, the availability of resources and refuges, and the temporal and spatial scale of their interaction. Predictive models of predator distributions often rely on these relationships by incorporating ... Full text Cite

The looming crisis: Interactions between marine mammals and fisheries

Journal Article Journal of Mammalogy · June 1, 2008 Direct fisheries interactions pose a serious threat to the conservation of many populations and some species of marine mammals. The most acute problem is bycatch, unintended mortality in fishing gear, although this can transition into unregulated harvest u ... Full text Cite

Stomach contents of mass-stranded short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus) from North Carolina

Journal Article Marine Mammal Science · April 1, 2008 We examined the stomach contents of 27 short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus) that mass stranded on the North Carolina coast on 15 January 2005. Eleven whales had prey parts in their forestomachs. We used frequency of occurrence and numeric ... Full text Cite

Saving the vaquita: immediate action, not more data.

Journal Article Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology · December 2007 Full text Cite

Complexity and variation in loggerhead sea turtle life history.

Journal Article Biology letters · December 2007 Juvenile loggerhead sea turtles spend more than a decade in the open ocean before returning to neritic waters to mature and reproduce. It has been assumed that this transition from an oceanic to neritic existence is a discrete ontogenetic niche shift. We t ... Full text Cite

Comparing effectiveness of experimental and implemented bycatch reduction measures: the ideal and the real.

Journal Article Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology · October 2007 Fishers, scientists, and resource managers have made substantial progress in reducing bycatch of sea turtles, seabirds, and marine mammals through physical modifications to fishing gear. Many bycatch-avoidance measures have been developed and tested succes ... Full text Cite

Flow-field observations of a tidally driven island wake used by marine mammals in the Bay of Fundy, Canada

Journal Article Fisheries Oceanography · September 1, 2007 Correlations between fine-scale oceanographic features and aggregations of marine mammals are frequently reported, but the physical forces shaping these relationships are rarely explored. We conducted a series of oceanographic observations and remote sensi ... Full text Cite

Do circle hooks reduce the mortality of sea turtles in pelagic longlines? A review of recent experiments

Journal Article Biological Conservation · March 1, 2007 Circle hooks have been proposed as a means of reducing the by-catch mortality of sea turtles in pelagic longline fisheries to sustainable levels. I examine the efficacy of circle hooks as a sea turtle conservation measure by examining the results of field ... Full text Cite

Reproduction in short-beaked common dolphins (Delphinus delphis) from the western North Atlantic

Journal Article Marine Biology · February 1, 2007 A single population of short-beaked common dolphins (Delphinus delphis Linnaeus) occurs in the western North Atlantic from Florida to Newfoundland. Dolphins killed in a swordfish driftnet fishery between 1989 and 1998 provided samples for the present study ... Full text Cite

Habitat use in a marine ecosystem: Beluga whales Delphinapterus leucas in Cook Inlet, Alaska

Journal Article Marine Ecology Progress Series · January 25, 2007 Marine ecosystems have fluid habitat features that can be modeled for application in management decisions. With less than 360 beluga whales Delphinapterus leucas remaining in Alaska's Cook Inlet population and increasing development in the area, it is impo ... Full text Cite

Geospatial web services within a scientific workflow: Predicting marine mammal habitats in a dynamic environment

Journal Article Ecological Informatics · January 1, 2007 Our ability to inform conservation and management of species is fundamentally limited by the availability of relevant biogeographic data, use of statistically robust predictive models, and presentation of results to decision makers. Despite the ubiquity of ... Full text Cite

Assessing compliance to guidelines by dolphin-watching operators in Clearwater, Florida, USA

Journal Article Tourism in Marine Environments · December 1, 2006 Numerous studies have quantified the impacts of tourism on marine mammals; however, few studies have investigated tour operators' procedures and their compliance with regulations and guidelines. This study quantifies operator compliance with NOAA guideline ... Full text Cite

Whale distribution in relation to prey abundance and oceanographic processes in shelf waters of the Western Antarctic Peninsula

Journal Article Marine Ecology Progress Series · July 18, 2006 The Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) is a biologically rich area supporting large standing stocks of krill and top predators (including whales, seals and seabirds). Physical forcing greatly affects productivity, recruitment, survival and distribution of k ... Full text Cite

OBIS-SEAMAP: Developing a biogeographic research data commons for the ecological studies of marine mammals, seabirds, and sea turtles

Journal Article Marine Ecology Progress Series · July 3, 2006 Our ability to understand, conserve, and manage the planet's marine biodiversity is fundamentally limited by the availability of relevant taxonomic, distribution, and abundance data. The Spatial Ecological Analysis of Marine Megavertebrate Animal Populatio ... Full text Cite

Depredation of catch by bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) in the Florida king mackerel (Scomberomorus cavalla) troll fishery

Journal Article Fishery Bulletin · July 1, 2006 We documented depredation by bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) in the Florida king mackerel (Scomberomorus cavalla) troll fishery. Between March and June 2003, we conducted 26 interviews of charter and commercial fishermen in Islamorada, Florida, an ... Cite

Techniques for cetacean-habitat modeling

Journal Article Marine Ecology Progress Series · April 3, 2006 Cetacean-habitat modeling, although still in the early stages of development, represents a potentially powerful tool for predicting cetacean distributions and understanding the ecological processes determining these distributions. Marine ecosystems vary te ... Full text Cite

Bycatch of marine mammals in U.S. and global fisheries.

Journal Article Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology · February 2006 Fisheries bycatch poses a significant threat to many populations of marine mammals, but there are few published estimates of the magnitude of these catches. We estimated marine mammal bycatch in U.S. fisheries from 1990 to 1999 with data taken from the sto ... Full text Cite

Understanding the impacts of anthropogenic sound on beaked whales

Journal Article Journal of Cetacean Research and Management · 2006 Cite

Fishing techniques to reduce the bycatch of threatened marine animals

Journal Article Marine Technology Society Journal · January 1, 2006 Unintended injuries and fatalities to non-target marine species - a major component of "bycatch" - is one of the principal threats to the survival of many endangered marine populations and species. This paper describes both proposed and existing fishing te ... Full text Cite

Fin whales Balaenoptera physalus and minke whales Balaenoptera acutorostrata exploit a tidally driven island wake ecosystem in the Bay of Fundy

Journal Article Marine Ecology Progress Series · December 23, 2005 Marine predators forage in tidally induced oceanographic features, where they exploit predictable aggregations of prey. Very little, however, is known about how the physical forcing within these features affects their behaviour at a fine scale. During the ... Full text Cite

Bilateral action for right whales - Reply

Journal Article SCIENCE · December 9, 2005 Link to item Cite

Bilateral action for right whales.

Journal Article Science (New York, N.Y.) · December 2005 Full text Cite

Effects of fine-scale oceanographic features on the distribution and movements of harbour porpoises Phocoena phocoena in the Bay of Fundy

Journal Article Marine Ecology Progress Series · June 23, 2005 We describe an integrative approach to studying the fine-scale distribution of harbour porpoises Phocoena phocoena in the Bay of Fundy, using satellite telemetry, line transect surveys and remote sensing techniques. Analysis of satellite telemetry data fro ... Full text Cite

North Atlantic right whales in crisis

Journal Article Science · 2005 Cite

Prey detection by bottlenose dolphins, Tursiops truncatus: An experimental test of the passive listening hypothesis

Journal Article Animal Behaviour · January 1, 2005 Bottlenose dolphins possess a sophisticated echolocation system, but evidence suggests that they use this sensory modality sparingly in the wild. Several authors have noted that soniferous fish are prevalent in the diet of bottlenose dolphins, leading to t ... Full text Cite

Bycatch and depredation

Conference MARINE MAMMAL RESEARCH: CONSERVATION BEYOND CRISIS · January 1, 2005 Link to item Cite

Understanding impacts of fisheries bycatch on marine megafauna

Journal Article Trends in Ecology and Evolution · November 1, 2004 Hunting by humans played a major role in extirpating terrestrial megafauna on several continents and megafaunal loss continues today in both terrestrial and marine ecosystems. Recent declines of large marine vertebrates that are of little or no commercial ... Full text Cite

Resonance and dissonance: Science, ethics, and the sonar debate

Journal Article MARINE MAMMAL SCIENCE · October 2004 Cite

Echolocation behavior of harbor porpoises Phocoena phocoena around chemically enhanced gill nets

Journal Article Marine Ecology Progress Series · September 28, 2004 The echolocation behavior of harbor porpoises Phocoena phocoena around gillnets was monitored to test their response to chemically (BaSO4) enhanced gill nets, designed to be more acoustically reflective than commercial nets. Field trials were conducted bet ... Full text Cite

Behavioral responses of bottlenose dolphins, Tursiops truncatus, to gillnets and acoustic alarms

Journal Article Biological Conservation · January 1, 2004 Along the east coast of the United States, by-catches of bottlenose dolphins, Tursiops truncatus, in gillnet fisheries exceed removal levels set under the US Marine Mammal Protection Act. One measure proposed to reduce this mortality is the use of acoustic ... Full text Cite

Fine-scale behaviour of bottlenose dolphins around gillnets.

Journal Article Proceedings. Biological sciences · August 2003 We studied the fine-scale behaviour of bottlenose dolphins Tursiops truncatus around gillnets in North Carolina, USA, during May and June 2002. We made observations from an overhead digital video camera, suspended from a helium-filled aerostat, tethered 70 ... Full text Cite

Variation in timing of conception between populations of the harbor porpoise

Journal Article Journal of Mammalogy · August 1, 2003 We examined reproductive seasonality in 2 populations of the harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) in the eastern and western North Atlantic Ocean and compared our observations with historical data from the Baltic and North seas. Dates of conception for indi ... Full text Cite

Considering other consumers: Fisheries, predators, and atlantic herring in the Gulf of Maine

Journal Article Conservation Ecology · June 2003 After decades of overexploitation and severe depletion, Atlantic herring stocks in waters of the northeastern United States have recovered. Fishery managers now consider the herring resource to be underexploited. Nevertheless, some fishery managers and sus ... Cite

High concentrations of isovaleric acid in the fats of odontocetes: variation and patterns of accumulation in blubber vs. stability in the melon.

Journal Article Journal of comparative physiology. B, Biochemical, systemic, and environmental physiology · April 2003 Isovaleric acid (iso5:0) is an unusual fatty acid that is important for echolocation and hearing in acoustic tissues of some odontocetes, but its functional significance in blubber is unknown. We examined patterns of accumulation of this compound in blubbe ... Full text Cite

Whaling as Science

Journal Article BioScience · March 1, 2003 Full text Cite

Reproductive seasonality of Western Atlantic bottlenose dolphins off North Carolina, U.S.A.

Journal Article Marine Mammal Science · January 1, 2003 We describe reproductive seasonality of bottlenose dolphins in North Carolina (NC), U.S.A., using strandings data from the entire coast of NC and sighting data from Beaufort, NC and by estimating dates of birth of known females. We found a strong peak of n ... Full text Cite

Improving management of overlapping bottlenose dolphin ecotypes through spatial analysis and genetics

Journal Article Marine Mammal Science · January 1, 2003 In the Northwest Atlantic the distribution of coastal bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) overlaps with that of the offshore ecotype. We hypothesized that the distribution of the two ecotypes could be delineated by depth and/or distance from shore, fa ... Full text Cite

Considering other consumers: Fisheries, predators, and Atlantic herring in the Gulf of Maine

Journal Article Ecology and Society · January 1, 2003 After decades of overexploitation and severe depletion, Atlantic herring stocks in waters of the northeastern United States have recovered. Fishery managers now consider the herring resource to be underexploited. Nevertheless, some fishery managers and sus ... Full text Cite

Abundance of bottlenose dolphins in the bays, sounds, and estuaries of North Carolina

Journal Article Marine Mammal Science · January 1, 2003 We conducted a mark-recapture survey of bottlenose dolphins Tursiops truncatus in the bays, sounds, and estuaries of North Carolina during July 2000, using photographic identification techniques. During this survey we took 7,682 photographs of dolphins and ... Full text Cite

Changes in blubber distribution and morphology associated with starvation in the harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena): evidence for regional differences in blubber structure and function.

Journal Article Physiological and biochemical zoology : PBZ · September 2002 To examine patterns of blubber loss accompanying a decline in body condition, blubber thickness of juvenile harbor porpoises in normal/robust body condition (n=69) was compared with that of starved conspecifics (n=31). Blubber thickness in the thorax of st ... Full text Cite

Ontogenetic allometry and body composition of harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena, L.) from the western North Atlantic

Journal Article Journal of Zoology · August 1, 2002 North Atlantic harbour porpoises Phocoena phocoena (L.) face considerable energetic challenges, as they are relatively small marine mammals with an intense reproductive schedule and a cold-water habitat. Postnatal growth of these porpoises was described us ... Full text Cite

Potential limits to anthropogenic mortality for harbour porpoises in the Baltic region

Journal Article Biological Conservation · February 5, 2002 We estimated potential limits to anthropogenic mortality for harbour porpoises in the Baltic region (the Skagerrak, Kattegat, Great Belt and Little Belt Seas, the Kiel and Mecklenburg Bights, and the Baltic Sea) using conservation objectives set by the Agr ... Full text Cite

Fine-scale habitat selection of foraging bottlenose dolphins tursiops truncatus near clearwater, florida

Journal Article Marine Ecology Progress Series · November 5, 2001 Previous studies have proposed that seagrass habitats, by supporting diverse and abundant fish assemblages, are preferred by foraging dolphins in coastal systems. To test this hypothesis, we (1) examined the fine-scale behavior of bottlenose dolphins in re ... Full text Cite

Trends in the maternal investment of harbour porpoises are uncoupled from the dynamics of their primary prey.

Journal Article Proceedings. Biological sciences · March 2001 Harbour porpoises in the Bay of Fundy and Gulf of Maine feed primarily on Atlantic herring. Herring stocks have undergone dramatic fluctuations in abundance over the past three decades due to changes in fishing intensity. In order to understand the effects ... Full text Cite

Further scrutiny of scientific whaling.

Journal Article Science (New York, N.Y.) · December 2000 Full text Cite

Status of marine mammals in the United States

Journal Article Conservation Biology · August 1, 2000 The 1994 amendments to the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act required, for the first time, an assessment of the status of every marine mammal stock in the United States. We draw conclusions about the status of marine mammals from assessments of 153 stocks ... Full text Cite

Seasonal regression in testicular size and histology in harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena, L.) from the Bay of Fundy and Gulf of Maine

Journal Article Journal of Zoology · February 1, 2000 Seasonal regression of testes and epididymides is described for 161 mature harbour porpoises Phocoena phocoena, L. from the Bay of Fundy and Gulf of Maine from June to December 1984-1995. Based on histological appearance and size of gonads, testes are full ... Full text Cite

Seasonal regression in testicular size and histology in harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena, L.) from the Bay of Fundy and Gulf of Maine

Journal Article Journal of Zoology · February 2000 AbstractSeasonal regression of testes and epididymides is described for 161 mature harbour porpoises Phocoena phocoena, L. from the Bay of Fundy and Gulf of Maine from June to December 1984–1995. ... Full text Cite

Epidermal diseases in bottlenose dolphins: impacts of natural and anthropogenic factors.

Journal Article Proceedings. Biological sciences · May 1999 Experimental studies have highlighted the potential influence of contaminants on marine mammal immune function and anthropogenic contaminants are commonly believed to influence the development of diseases observed in the wild. However, estimates of the imp ... Full text Cite

D E G 1939–1998

Journal Article Marine Mammal Science · April 1999 Full text Cite

Hematology values of wild harbor porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) from the Bay of Fundy, Canada

Journal Article Marine Mammal Science · January 1, 1999 Clinical hematology values were determined for 29 harbor porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) released from herring weirs in the Bay of Fundy, Canada. Erythrocyte values exhibited narrow ranges, but there was a high degree of individual variability in counts of w ... Full text Cite

Documenting the bycatch of harbor porpoises, Phocoena phocoena, in coastal gillnet fisheries from stranded carcasses

Journal Article Fishery Bulletin · October 1, 1998 We examined 107 harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) carcasses recovered from beaches in Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina between 1994 and 1996 for evidence of entanglement in fishing gear. Stranded porpoises ranged in length from 102 to 128 cm, indic ... Cite

Autumn food habits of harbor porpoises, Phocoena phocoena, in the Gulf of Maine

Journal Article Fishery Bulletin · July 1, 1998 This study describes the stomach contents of 95 harbor porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) killed in groundfish gill nets in the Gulf of Maine between September and December, 1989-94. The importance of prey was assessed by frequency of occurrence, numerical prop ... Cite

Pingers, porpoises and power: Uncertainties with using pingers to reduce bycatch of small cetaceans

Journal Article Biological Conservation · May 1, 1998 Incidental mortality in gillnets is probably the most serious global threat to dolphin and porpoise populations. In 1994, a well-designed study demonstrated a 92% reduction in bycatch of harbour porpoises in sink gillnets equipped with acoustic pingers. Th ... Full text Cite

Applications of new technology to the conservation of porpoises

Journal Article Marine Technology Society Journal · March 1, 1998 The application of data loggers and satellite-linked transmitters have enabled field biologists to overcome many of the difficulties associated with studying cetaceans at sea. Of particular interest is collection of data from species, like the harbour porp ... Cite

Harbor porpoise and fisheries: An uncertainty analysis of incidental mortality

Journal Article Ecological Applications · January 1, 1998 The harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) in the western North Atlantic is subject to mortality due to entanglement in gillnets. Such incidental mortality threatens a population if it is too large relative to the potential population growth rate. Critical va ... Full text Cite

Monitoring a rehabilitated harbor porpoise using satellite telemetry

Journal Article Marine Mammal Science · January 1, 1998 Full text Cite

Monitoring the movements of harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) with satellite telemetry

Journal Article Marine Biology · December 1, 1997 The movements of nine harbour porpoises, Phocoena phocoena (L.), in the Bay of Fundy and Gulf of Maine were tracked using satellite telemetry. Transmitters were attached to the porpoises in August 1994 and 1995 after they were captured near Grand Manan Isl ... Full text Cite

Feeding ecology of long-finned pilot whales Globicephala melas in the western North Atlantic

Journal Article Marine Ecology Progress Series · March 20, 1997 Stomach contents from 30 long-finned pilot whales Globicephala melas captured incidentally in the Distant Water Fleet (DWF) mackerel fishery off the northeastern United States were examined. Several methods of assessing prey importance were used in order t ... Full text Cite

Acoustic alarms reduce porpoise mortality [4]

Journal Article Nature · January 1, 1997 Full text Cite

Stomach contents of long-finned pilot whales (Globicephala melas) stranded on the U.S. mid-Atlantic coast

Journal Article Marine Mammal Science · January 1, 1997 Ten prey taxa were recorded from the stomach contents of eight long-tinned pilot whales (Globicephala melas) independently stranded along the U.S. mid-Atlantic coast. Relative importance of prey species was determined by methods that incorporate prey frequ ... Full text Cite

Postnatal growth and allometry of harbour porpoises from the Bay of Fundy

Journal Article Canadian Journal of Zoology · January 1, 1997 We described patterns of growth and allometry from observations of 203 female and 198 male harbour porpoises. Phocoena phocoena, killed in commercial fisheries in the Bay of Fundy between 1985 and 1993 Gompertz growth curves were used to predict length, ma ... Full text Cite

Summary of current knowledge of harbour porpoises in US and Canadian Atlantic waters

Journal Article Forty-sixth report of the International Whaling Commission · December 1, 1996 From the Gulf of Maine/Bay of Fundy harbour porpoise Phocoena phocoena population, the average abundance was 47 200 for 1991 and 1992. Based on observer programs, in 1993 the bycatch in the groundfish sink gillnet fishery from the US Gulf of Maine was 1400 ... Cite

Life history of the vaquita, Phocoena sinus (Phocoenidae, Cetacea)

Journal Article Journal of Zoology · June 1, 1996 The vaquita, Phocoena sinus, is the most endangered marine cetacean primarily due to incidental mortality in fishing nets. We examined a sample of 56 vaquitas to study the life history of this poorly known species. The age structure was bimodal, with 62% o ... Full text Cite

Seasonality of reproduction in bottlenose dolphins, Tursiops truncatus

Journal Article Journal of Mammalogy · January 1, 1996 We examined the seasonality of reproduction in captive and wild bottlenose dolphins, TurSiops truncatus. Stranding records of neonatal dolphins and observed births from a long-term field study were used to estimate peak periods of birth for wild population ... Full text Cite

BLOOD CHEMISTRY OF WILD HARBOR PORPOISES PHOCOENA PHOCOENA (L.)

Journal Article Marine Mammal Science · January 1, 1995 Blood chemistry values were measured from 31 harbor porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) released from herring weirs in the Bay of Fundy, Canada. Sodium, phosphorus, calcium, chloride, magnesium, total protein, albumin, globulin, urea, cholesterol, serum osmolali ... Full text Cite

New approaches to studying the foraging ecology of small cetaceans

Journal Article Developments in Marine Biology · January 1, 1995 Dolphins and porpoises spend the majority of their lives underwater, out of the view of human observers. Consequently, scientists have relied on indirect means to study the foraging ecology of these animals. These indirect methods, such as examining the st ... Full text Cite

Diving behaviour of harbour porpoises, Phocoena phocoena

Journal Article Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences · January 1, 1995 Mean dive depths and duration ranged from 14±16 to 41±32 m, and from 44±37 to 103±67 s, respectively. The maximum recorded dive depth and duration was 226 m and 321 s. This performance may not represent the maximum capacity of harbour porpoises but rather ... Full text Cite

LIFE IN THE FAST LANE: THE LIFE HISTORY OF HARBOR PORPOISES FROM THE GULF OF MAINE

Journal Article Marine Mammal Science · January 1, 1995 We describe the life history of harbor porpoises in the Gulf of Maine by examining 239 animals killed in gill net fisheries and comparing these findings with the results of previous studies from the Bay of Fundy. Most female porpoises matured at age three ... Full text Cite

SATELLITE‐MONITORED MOVEMENTS AND DIVE BEHAVIOR OF A BOTTLENOSE DOLPHIN (TURSIOPS TRUNCATUS) IN TAMPA BAY, FLORIDA

Journal Article Marine Mammal Science · January 1, 1995 An adult, female bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops trucncatus) was radio tagged and monitored via satellite‐based Argos receivers for 25 d from 28 June to 23 July 1990, in Tampa Bay, Florida. A total of 794 transmissions were obtained during 106 satellite passe ... Full text Cite

Interactions between cetaceans and gillnet and trap fisheries in the Northwest Atlantic

Journal Article Gillnets and cetaceans · January 1, 1994 Ten major categories of passive fisheries are identified, five of which take substantial numbers of cetaceans during the course of their operations: Atlantic Canada and Gulf of Maine groundfish gillnets; Atlantic Canada cod traps; Bay of Fundy and Gulf of ... Cite

Reproduction of dusky dolphins, Lagenorhynchus obscurus, from coastal Peru

Journal Article Journal of Mammalogy · January 1, 1994 Full text Cite

Patterns of growth in wild bottlenose dolphins, Tursiops truncatus

Journal Article Journal of Zoology · January 1, 1993 The growth of bottlenose dolphins is described from observations made during a capture release programme that has operated in coastal waters of the eastern Gulf of Mexico from 1970 to the present. Measurements of standard length, girth and body mass were r ... Full text Cite

Consumption of euphausiids by harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) calves in the Bay of Fundy

Journal Article Canadian Journal of Zoology · January 1, 1992 The calves' most common prey item was the euphausiid Meganyctiphanes norvegica, whereas the adults fed primarily on clupeid and gadid fishes. Euphausiids were also found in the stomachs of several of these fish species. Porpoise calves may take euphausiids ... Full text Cite

Potential rates of increase of a harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) population subjected to incidental mortality in commercial fisheries

Journal Article Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences · January 1, 1991 Estimated the potential intrinsic rate of increase (r) of the harbour porpoise population in the Bay of Fundy and Gulf of Maine using empirical data on reproductive rates and several hypothetical survival schedules. The most realistic model indicates that ... Full text Cite

Changes in growth and reproduction of harbour porpoises, Phocoena phocoena, from the Bay of Fundy

Journal Article Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences · January 1, 1990 Changes in the growth and reproduction of harbour porpoises from the Bay of Fundy are described by comparing samples collected in 1969-73 and 1985-88. The most pronounced change was an increase in the length of calves, from 92.1cm (SE 1.6) in 1969-73 to 10 ... Full text Cite

Estimation of body condition in harbour porpoises, Phocoena phocoena

Journal Article Canadian Journal of Zoology · January 1, 1990 Although the residuals of girth and blubber thickness demonstrated similar trends to those of blubber mass, they were poorly correlated with the residuals of blubber mass and are not robust indices of condition in harbour porpoises. -from Author ... Full text Cite

Reproductive seasonality in harbour porpoises, Phocoena phocoena, from the Bay of Fundy

Journal Article Canadian Journal of Zoology · January 1, 1990 Ovulation and conception occur in late June. Gestation lasts for 10.6 months and parturition occurs during mid-May. -from Author ... Full text Cite

Age at sexual maturity and pregnancy rates of harbour porpoises Phocoena phocoena from the Bay of Fundy

Journal Article Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences · January 1, 1990 Estimates of sexual maturity ranged from 3.15-3.44 yr; few individuals >7 yr of age were present in the sample. Mean age at first pregnancy was 3.76 yr. Pregnancy rate was estimated: 1) considering the entire sample and using the presence of a corpus luteu ... Full text Cite

Stomach contents of harbour porpoises, Phocoena phocoena (L.), from the Bay of Fundy

Journal Article Canadian Journal of Zoology · January 1, 1989 For harbour porpoises caught in the W Bay of Fundy during June-September, Atlantic herring Clupea harengus was the most important prey species, contributing 80% of the total caloric intake, with some spatial and temporal variation. Silver hake Merluccius b ... Full text Cite

The exploitation of small cetaceans in Coastal Peru

Journal Article Biological Conservation · January 1, 1988 Several species of small cetaceans are captured by fishermen in Peruvian coastal waters and used for human consumption. A large directed fishery exists for one species, the dusky dolphin Lagenorhynchus obscurus. In addition, two other species, the Burmeist ... Full text Cite

Incidental catch of harbor porpoises by gill nets

Journal Article Journal of Wildlife Management · January 1, 1988 Total catch of Phocoena phocoena by groundfish gill nets in the SW Bay of Fundy between June-September 1986 was 105 ±10.8 animals. Porpoises are entangled while nets are on the bottom in water depths of 37-96 m. No change in porpoise density was detected b ... Full text Cite

Radio tracking the movements and activities of harbor porpoises, Phocoena phocoena (L.), in the Bay of Fundy, Canada.

Journal Article Fishery Bulletin · January 1, 1985 Movement of radio-tagged porpoises coincided with the direction of tidal flow in the major channels and passages. Porpoises were relatively inactive from midnight until 0600.-from Authors ... Cite