Association ELI-S <eliscientific@gmail.com> mar. 28 juin 2022 23:54 À marmam-request Dear MARMAM community, My co-authors and I are pleased to share our recent publication in Scientific Reports De Weerdt, J., Pacheco A., Calambokidis J., Castaneda M., Cheeseman T., Frisch A., Garita F., Hayslip C., Martinez-Loustalot P., Palacios M.D., Quintana E., Ransome N., Urban J., Clapham P. and Van der Stocken T. 2023. Migratory destinations and spatial structuring of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) wintering off Nicaragua. Scientific Reports. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-41923-7 Abstract. Understanding the migratory patterns of large whales is of conservation importance, especially in identifying threats to specific populations. Migration ecology, including migratory destinations, movements and site fidelity for humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) remain poorly studied in parts of the range of the Central America population, considered endangered under the United States Endangered Species Act. This study aimed to investigate the migratory destinations of humpback whales sighted at two study sites in Nicaragua, which are part of the Central America population. A ten-year photographic database of humpback whales observed off Nicaragua was combined with citizen science contributions and sightings from dedicated research programs. The resulting image collection was compared with available historical photo identifications and databases using an automated image recognition algorithm. This approach yielded 36 years of photographic identification totaling 431 recaptures in Nicaragua (2006–2008 and 2016–2021) and 2539 recaptures (1986–2020) in both feeding and breeding grounds of 176 unique individuals sighted in Nicaragua. Our results showed that photo-identified whales were recaptured between October and April in breeding grounds and year-round in feeding grounds between British Columbia and California, with peak recaptures between June and October. Our study provided first-time evidence on fne-scale site affinity of individual humpback whales within Nicaraguan waters and to other breeding and feeding grounds. The pdf of the paper is available here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-41923-7 If you wish to support this project you can order an original whale bracelet that is handmade and custom made by Association ELI-S. https://eli-s.com/shop/, consider a donation <https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=6DCP5GMKBKYLA>, or follow us on our social media. Best regards, *Joëlle De Weerdt* *I support Whale Research in Nicaragua with my online searches on lilo <http://www.lilo.org/fr/?utm_source=eli-scientific>* PhD Candidate at Vrije Universiteit University Award winner of Jane Goodall Institute and Fondation Yves-Rocher Scientist at Association ELI-S --------------------- www.eli-s.com Find more on Association ELI-S: Facebook <https://www.facebook.com/AssociationELIS> | Instagram <http://www.instagram.com/association.elis> | Twitter <http://twitter.com/ELI_Scientific> | Youtube <https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjeseHPDvE6pq-MmoZXWNkg> ResearchGate <https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Joelle-De-Weerdt> | ORCiD <https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4054-6609> | LinkedIn <https://www.linkedin.com/in/jo%C3%ABlle-de-weerdt/>