South Georgia Blue Whales Five Decades After the End of Whaling
Vol. 43: 359–373, 2020 ENDANGERED SPECIES RESEARCH Published November 19 https://doi.org/10.3354/esr01077 Endang Species Res OPEN ACCESS South Georgia blue whales five decades after the end of whaling Susannah V. Calderan1,*, Andy Black2, Trevor A. Branch3, Martin A. Collins4, Natalie Kelly5, Russell Leaper6, Sarah Lurcock7, Brian S. Miller5, Michael Moore8, Paula A. Olson9, Ana Širović10, Andrew G. Wood4, Jennifer A. Jackson4 1Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS), Argyll PA37 1QA, UK 2Government of South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands, Government House, Stanley FIQQ 1ZZ, Falkland Islands 3School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA 4British Antarctic Survey, NERC, High Cross, Cambridge CB3 0ET, UK 5Australian Antarctic Division, Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, Kingston, Tasmania 7050, Australia 6International Fund for Animal Welfare, London SE1 8NL, UK 7South Georgia Heritage Trust, Dundee DD1 5BT, UK 8Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA 9Southwest Fisheries Science Center, NMFS/NOAA, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA 10Texas A&M University at Galveston, Galveston, TX 77553, USA ABSTRACT: Blue whales Balaenoptera musculus at South Georgia were heavily exploited during 20th century industrial whaling, to the point of local near-extirpation. Although legal whaling for blue whales ceased in the 1960s, and there were indications of blue whale recovery across the wider Southern Ocean area, blue whales were seldom seen in South Georgia waters in subse- quent years. We collated 30 yr of data comprising opportunistic sightings, systematic visual and acoustic surveys and photo-identification to assess the current distribution of blue whales in the waters surrounding South Georgia.
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