Dear colleagues,

 

My co-authors and I are excited to share with you our recent publication: Isotope-based inferences of the seasonal foraging and migratory strategies of blue whales in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

 

Here is the link to the article: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0141113620303597

 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marenvres.2020.105201

 

Abstract:

 

Migratory marine megafauna generally move vast distances between productive foraging grounds and environmentally stable breeding grounds, but characterizing how they use these habitats to maintain homeostasis and reproduce is difficult. We used isotope analysis of blue whale skin strata (n = 621) and potential prey (n = 300) to examine their migratory and foraging strategies in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Our results suggest that most whales in the northeast Pacific use a mixed income and capital breeding strategy, and use the California Current Ecosystem as their primary summer-fall foraging ground. A subset of individuals exhibited migratory plasticity and spend most of the year in the Gulf of California or Costa Rica Dome, two regions believed to be their primary winter-spring breeding grounds. Isotope data also revealed that whales in the southern Eastern Tropical Pacific generally do not forage in the northeast Pacific, which suggests a north-south population structure with a boundary near the equator.

 

Thank you,

Geraldine Busquets-Vass and co-authors

   

Postdoctoral Researcher

Department of Biology

University of New Mexico

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