Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) in Hervey Bay, Australia: a stopover for females early in their southern migration

Lyndon Brooks; Trish Franklin; Wally Franklin; Peter Harrison; Peter Corkeron; Kenneth H. Pollock

doi:10.3389/fmars.2024.1426248

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Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) in Hervey Bay, Australia: a stopover for females early in their southern migration

Lyndon Brooks, Trish Franklin, Wally Franklin, Peter Harrison, Peter Corkeron and Kenneth H. Pollock

Frontiers in Marine Science, Vol.11, pp.1-14

2024

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2024.1426248

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Abstract

humpback whale

Megaptera novaeangliae

Hervey Bay

population dynamics

survivorship

site-fidelity

residency

temporary emigration

In the Southern Hemisphere, humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) migrate along the extended continental coastlines of Australia, South America, and South Africa. This study reports on photo-identification capture-recapture data from a long-term survey conducted in Hervey Bay, Queensland, where a substantial proportion of the population stop over early in the southern migration. Photo-identification data were collected over 10 weeks per year from 1997 to 2009. The migration through Hervey Bay is dominated and led by females with high fidelity to the site. Mature females, yearlings, and immature whales use the Bay during August, while mature lactating females with calves dominate during September and October. Complex social behaviours occur throughout the season and differ between the early and late cohorts. We argue that the composition of the two cohorts and their distinctively different behaviours indicate that Hervey Bay is not simply a resting site but an area of aggregation that serves important social and biological benefits. A multistate open robust design model was fitted to capture-recapture data to estimate the annual number of whales visiting the Bay, the permanent emigration rate, proportions of the visiting population that do not enter the Bay each year, the number present during each week, and their residency times. The number of annual visitors to the Bay increased approximately linearly from 857 in 1997 to 2175 at the end of sampling in 2009 with two-thirds migrating through during the first half of each season. The population rate of growth may have been slowing by 2009, but there was considerable uncertainty in the trajectory and little basis for projection into the future. While it is desirable to know the current status of the Hervey Bay population and what has occurred since 2009, the cost and effort required make further manual collection and matching of images unlikely. The development of AI algorithmic matching software may enable further research in future.

Details

Title: Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) in Hervey Bay, Australia: a stopover for females early in their southern migration
Authors: Lyndon Brooks - Southern Cross Univ, Fac Sci & Engn, Marine Ecol Res Ctr MERC, Lismore, NSW, Australia
Trish Franklin - Southern Cross University
Wally Franklin (Corresponding Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and Engineering
Peter Harrison - Southern Cross University
Peter Corkeron - Griffith University
Kenneth H. Pollock - North Carolina State University
Publication details: Frontiers in Marine Science, Vol.11, pp.1-14
Publisher: Frontiers Research Foundation
Date published: 2024
DOI: 10.3389/fmars.2024.1426248
ISSN: 2296-7745
Copyright note: © 2024 Brooks, Franklin, Franklin, Harrison, Corkeron and Pollock. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Data Availability: The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/Supplementary Material. Further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.
Grants: Ageing wild vertebrates from their DNA: an investigation using Humpback Whales as an example, LP0562517, Australian Research Council (Australia, Canberra) - ARC
Grant note: The long-term study of humpback whales in Hervey Bay conducted by TF and WF is supported by The Oceania Project and in part by an Australian Research Council Linkage grant (LP0562517) with the Southern Cross University Marine Ecology Research Centre and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).
Organisation Unit: School of Science, Technology and Engineering
Language: English
Record Identifier: 991093497302621
Output Type: Journal article

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