Figure 4 - uploaded by Claire Garrigue
Content may be subject to copyright.
Source publication
The CETA program (Distribution des cétacés en Terre Adélie) was launched by the French Polar Institute (IPEV) in 2009 to carry out a first pilot study on cetacean distribution off Adelie Land (IWC Area V). An opportunistic survey conducted in January 2010 allowed the collection of 38 sightings on the continental shelf off the Adélie Land coastline,...
Similar publications
The southern Chukchi Sea is one of the most productive areas in the world ocean. Over the past decade, there have been dramatic changes in this region in sea ice cover and in Bering Strait inflow, and it is now in the path of transpolar shipping and destinational ship traffic, including vessels supporting Arctic offshore oil and gas development and...
Information about blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus) in the Eastern Tropical Pacific is scarce with only few whales sighted within the last decades. Molecular, photo ID and acoustic studies suggest a connectivity of Chilean and Antarctic blue whales to potential breeding areas off the coast of Peru and in the Galapagos, whereas blue whales of the...
While visual survey of whales requires substantial means for limited areas, passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) offers larger scale coverage for long periods and less costs. It usually provides information about species behavior, e.g. seasonal movements, but tools are needed to detail the individuals' behavior. From Indian Ocean in a mountainous area...
The blue whale Balaenoptera musculus (Linnaeus, 1758) was the target of intense commercial whaling in the 20th century, and current populations remain drastically below prewhaling abundances. Reducing uncertainty in subspecific taxonomy would enable targeted conservation strategies for the recovery of unique intraspecific diversity. Currently, ther...
Information on animal abundance and distribution is at the cornerstone of many wildlife and conservation strategies. However, these data can be difficult and costly to obtain for cetacean species. The expense of sufficient ship time to conduct design-unbiased line transect surveys may be simply out of reach for researchers in many countries, which...
Citations
... The sampling effort conducted in an area located between 150°E and 140°E by the CETA research program as part of the Southern Ocean Research Partnership (SORP) represents one of the few French initiatives for cetacean research in Antarctica (Garrigue et al., 2010, Chambellant et al., 2012. It contributes to the knowledge of cetaceans using non-lethal research techniques and extends the data available in the region. ...
... Our results suggest that Adélie Land constitutes a summer habitat for cetacean species that might be of potential importance. Apart from the match previously reported between Adélie Land and the Australian east coast (Garrigue et al., 2010;Constantine et al., 2014), no new match was found between the nine humpback whales photo-identified during the CETA project and humpback whales identified in the breeding grounds of New Caledonia, the adjacent feeding grounds, or migratory corridors. The recapture of one true blue whale a few years apart in the Ross Sea area contributes to increase the knowledge on movements of this poor known species and confirms the interest of all scientific programs on large whales in Antarctic waters. ...
The CETA program (Distribution des Cétacés en Terre Adélie) was launched with support of the French Polar Institute (IPEV) in 2009 to carry out a study on cetacean distribution off Adélie Land (IWC Area V). This work is a part of the Southern Ocean Research Partnerships (SORP) on non-lethal whale research and one of the only French research initiatives on cetaceans in the Antarctic region. Opportunistic surveys conducted in January 2010,2011 and 2014 allowed the collection of 144 sightings on the continental shelf off the Adélie Land. Antarctic blue whales (Balaenopteramusculus) and humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) were identified and sightings of Antarctic minke whale (Balaenoptera bonaerensis) and killer whale (Orcinus orca) type A and C confirmed the presence of both species in this area. Photo-identifications (Photo-ID) were realised on blue whales (3), humpback whales (9), Antarctic minke whales (17) and killer whales (35). One humpback whale observed on the east coast of Australia was resighted on the continental shelf of Adélie Land highlighting the connection between these two areas. No
new match was found when we compared a set of 1,300 photo-ID originated from the adjacent feeding or breeding grounds as well as migratory corridors. Three humpback whales were genetically compared with the genotyped whales from Oceania and
northbound and southbound migration (N=2,353) but no match was found. One blue whales photo-identified in 2010 was resighted in the Ross Sea area during the Antarctic Blue Whale Expedition in 2013.
... More recently, genetic analyses (e.g., [45]), photo-identification comparisons (e.g., [46]) and satellite tagging studies (e.g., [47]) have demonstrated connections between feeding and breeding areas. The dedicated Australia-New Zealand Antarctic Whale Expedition to Antarctic Area V in 2010 [48] and project CETA in 2010 [49], highlighted connections between the Balleny Islands region (66-68uS and 162-165uE) and waters off Adelie Land (65-66uS and 140-145uE) and the eastern Australian migratory corridor (six genetic matches, 23 photo-identification recaptures for the Balleny Islands, one photo-identification recapture for Adelie Land), the New Zealand migratory corridor (one genetic match to the Balleny Islands), and the New Caledonian breeding ground (one photo-identification recapture for the Balleny Islands) [45][46]. Opportunistic acoustic recordings were taken as part of the Australia-New Zealand Antarctic Whale Expedition and are analysed here to assess the similarity between humpback whale song recorded in the Southern Ocean and other regions. ...
Male humpback whales produce a long, complex, and stereotyped song on low-latitude breeding grounds; they also sing while migrating to and from these locations, and occasionally in high-latitude summer feeding areas. All males in a population sing the current version of the constantly evolving display and, within an ocean basin, populations sing similar songs; however, this sharing can be complex. In the western and central South Pacific region there is repeated cultural transmission of song types from eastern Australia to other populations eastward. Song sharing is hypothesized to occur through several possible mechanisms. Here, we present the first example of feeding ground song from the Southern Ocean Antarctic Area V and compare it to song from the two closest breeding populations. The early 2010 song contained at least four distinct themes; these matched four themes from the eastern Australian 2009 song, and the same four themes from the New Caledonian 2010 song recorded later in the year. This provides evidence for at least one of the hypothesized mechanisms of song transmission between these two populations, singing while on shared summer feeding grounds. In addition, the feeding grounds may provide a point of acoustic contact to allow the rapid horizontal cultural transmission of song within the western and central South Pacific region and the wider Southern Ocean.
... In 2010, as part of the Southern Ocean Research Partnership (SORP), the French Polar Institute (IPEV) launched a new 4-year research program CETA (Cétacés en Terre Adélie) to assess distribution and relative abundance of cetaceans off Adélie Land (IWC Area V, 65-66ºS and 140-145ºE; Garrigue et al. 2010). Photo-identification and/or biopsy of four targeted species, including killer whales (Orcinus orca), was also part of the program to identify stocks. ...
We present the first photo-ID catalogue of killer whales (Orcinus orca) in Terre Adélie, Antarctica. Pictures were taken over a two-year period (December 2008-January 2011) either opportunistically from land or ship, or systematically from the R/V L’Astrolabe as part of the CETA (CEtacés de Terre Adélie) project. Twenty five encounters with killer whales were reported. Fifteen of them were documented with a total of 611 pictures and one video were obtained and examined. Shape, size and characteristics of the dorsal fin as well as shape, color and marks of the saddle patch were the two most important features retained to identify individuals, but eye patches were also examined to help
identification. Thirty-five individuals were identified, including nine adult males and thirteen females with calf. Two individuals were seen on multiple occasions over the study period. A total of twenty-five mother/calf pairs were established. The biggest group was observed in January 2011 with 26 identified individuals. The three ecotypes recognized in Antarctic waters were present in our study. Ecotype B was seen mostly around the French Antarctic base (Dumont D’Urville) whereas ecotype A and C were seen exclusively offshore. Presence of cookie-cutter shark (Isistius spp.) scars on type B and C killer whales
may indicate migration to warmer waters. This catalogue is the baseline to which pictures from future CETA projects will be compared and added. It will be used to evaluate the distribution of the different ecotypes of killer whales in East Antarctica.
... The French CETA programme is undertaken by marine mammal observers collecting cetacean sightings from the French research and resupply vessel RV L'Astrolabe as it travels from Hobart, Australia to the French Dumont D'Urville Antarctic base (66°40'S 140° 01'E) in Adélie Land (IWC Area V, 65-66°S and 140-145°E) (Garrigue et al. 2010a;Garrigue et al. 2010b). The vessel travelled through Area V waters from 10 th to 22 nd January 2010 conducting an oceanographic survey and was used as a ship of opportunity for whale work. ...
This paper reports on a comprehensive matching of humpback whale fluke photographs from Antarctic Area V to the migratory corridors and breeding grounds from Western Australia in the west to American Samoa, South Pacific in the east, and to the other Antarctic regions. A total of 61 unique whales were identified in Antarctic Area V during January 2010 by the French CETA project (n = 2) and February – March 2010 by the Antarctic Whale Expedition (n = 59), a joint research effort by Australia and New Zealand. These images were placed on an open access web-site and researchers compared their existing catalogues to the AWE dataset. These images were matched against a total of 17,243 fluke identification images (including an unknown number of duplicates) collected from 1984 – 2010; west Australia (n = 1,664), east Australia (n = 9,994 images), Norfolk Island (n = 6); New Zealand (n = 100); west Oceania (n = 1,806); Breeding stocks A – G (n = 2,403) and Antarctica Peninsula, Chile and feeding areas II – VI (n = 1,270). Forty-one percent (n = 25) of the 2010 Antarctic images matched to existing catalogues; 24 matched to east Australia and 1 matched to New Caledonia. The majority of the 2010 whales were photographed in the vicinity of the Balleny Islands, which adds support to previous opportunistic studies linking individuals in this region of Area V to east Australia but not to west Australia or Oceania. Similar results have been reported with molecular data from tissue samples collected during the same 2010 surveys (Steel et al. 2011). These data clearly show that the Balleny Islands are an important feeding ground for east Australian humpback whales but that the feeding grounds for the west Australia and endangered Oceania whales remain poorly described and understood.
The Southern Ocean Research Partnership (IWC-SORP) was established in 2009 with the aim of
developing a multi-lateral, non-lethal scientific research programme that would improve the
coordinated and cooperative delivery of science to the IWC. There are now 13 member countries in the
Partnership: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, New
Zealand, Norway, South Africa, and the United States. This paper reports on the continued progress of
IWC-SORP and its six ongoing research themes1 since the Scientific Committee meeting in 2018. This
progress includes the production of at least 18 peer-reviewed scientific papers in 2018/19, bringing the
total number of peer-reviewed publications related to IWC-SORP produced since the start of the
initiative to ca. 144. Moreover, 133 IWC-SORP related papers have been submitted to the Scientific
Committee, 8 of them this year. Fieldtrips to the western Antarctic Peninsula, Marion Island, the
Southern Ocean (between 60°S – 67°S and 138°E – 152°E), the Ross Sea and the Great Barrier Reef,
Australia have taken place in the past year. Thousands of images for photo-identification have been
collected, satellite tags have been deployed on killer whales, Antarctic minke whales and humpback
whales. As well as video suction cup tags on Antarctic minke and humpback whales. Biopsy samples
have been collected from killer whales, humpback and Antarctic minke whales; and hundreds of hours
of cetacean acoustic recordings have been made and analysed.
KEYWORDS: SOUTHERN OCEAN RESEARCH PARTNERSHIP, IWC-SORP, ANTARCTICA,
ABUNDANCE ESTIMATE, ACOUSTICS, BIOPSY SAMPLING, PHOTO-IDENTIFICATION,
SATELLITE TAGGING, MOVEMENT, CONNECTIVITY, RESEARCH VOYAGE
Understanding the dynamics of population recovery is particularly complex when an organism has multiple, remote breeding and feeding grounds separated by one of the longest known migration routes. This study reports on the most comprehensive assessment of humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) movements between remote Antarctic waters south of New Zealand and east Australia (EA), and the migratory corridors and breeding grounds of Australia and Oceania. A total of 112 individual whales were identified; 57 from microsatellites and 61 by fluke with 23 % (n = 26) matched to sites outside Antarctica. Despite large datasets from other southern regions being included in the comparison, the whales were predominantly linked to EA (n = 24). Only two matches to the Oceania catalogues directly north was surprising; therefore the primary feeding grounds of these endangered whales still remain unknown. The confirmation of the Balleny Islands as an important feeding ground for EA whales could provide an insight into reasons behind the rapid recovery of this population. Determining the feeding grounds of Oceania’s whales may explain whether prey energetics or migration length are limiting factors to their recovery and will allow an understanding of future ecosystem changes in these whales.
