Dear MARMAM-Users, I am pleased to announce a new paper on how incorporating prey energy into assessments of energy balance can help improve our understanding of harbour porpoise energetics: Booth CG. Food for thought: Harbor porpoise foraging behavior and diet inform vulnerability to disturbance. Mar Mam Sci. 2019;1 – 14. https://doi.org/10.1111/mms.12632 Abstract: “Research has shown that noise disturbance can disrupt the behavior of harbor porpoises. The significance of such disturbance is unclear. However, these animals may be vulnerable to starvation when disturbed due to their high energy requirements. Important parameters determining harbor porpoise energy balance are the size and energy content of prey, their foraging behavior and their energetic requirements for homeostasis, growth, and reproduction. Energy intake can be estimated using published data from tagged animals. Such analysis indicates a broad range of plausible levels of energy intake, in line with those from captive studies. Metabolizable energy intake estimates were most strongly affected by variations in target prey size and to a lesser extent, by the foraging intensity of porpoises. In all but the worst case scenarios, harbor porpoises are well equipped for their ecological niche due to their generalist diet, consisting of a range of moderate to high energy-density prey combined with ultra-high foraging rates and high capture success. If animals can find suitable prey, porpoises may be capable of recovering from some lost foraging opportunities. Minimizing disturbances is, however, important for their health. Further research into prey and the environment are required to fully test the assumption of vulnerability.” If you would like a copy of the paper, please contact me at cgb(at)smruconsulting.com. Kind regards, Cormac Booth Dr Cormac Booth Principal Scientist [SMRU_Consulting_Horizontal_(rgb) (1)_smaller] SMRU Consulting | New Technology Building | North Haugh | St Andrews | Fife KY16 9SR | UK Email: cgb@smruconsulting.com<mailto:cgb@smruconsulting.com> |Tel: +44 (0)131 46 38 555 |Mob: +358 40 321 9235 | Main Office: +44-1334-464746 www.smruconsulting.com<http://www.smruconsulting.com/> | Twitter: @SMRU_Consulting | http://www.linkedin.com/company/smru-marine P Please consider whether you really need a hard copy of this email before printing it - thank you NOTICE OF CONFIDENTIALITY: This message, and any attachments, are intended solely for the addressee and may contain privileged or confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient, any disclosure, copying, distribution or action taken or omitted to be taken in reliance on it, is prohibited and may be unlawful. If you believe that you have received this email in error, please contact the sender immediately and destroy this email. Although we have taken steps to ensure that this email and any attachments are free from any virus, we advise that, in keeping with good computing practice, the recipient should ensure they are actually virus free. SMRU Consulting is a trading name of SMRU Limited, which is a limited company registered in Scotland, Registered Number: SC296937. Registered Office: 5 Atholl Crescent, Edinburgh EH3 8EJ.
