Language selection

Search

Research Document - 2016/078

Wintering areas, fall movements and foraging sites of blue whales satellite-tracked in the Western North Atlantic

By Véronique Lesage, Katherine Gavrilchuk, Russel D. Andrews, and Richard Sears

Abstract

The blue whale (Balaenopterus musculus) is a wide-ranging cetacean that can be found in all oceans, inhabiting coastal and oceanic habitats. In the North Atlantic, little is known about blue whale distribution and genetic structure, and if whether animals found in Icelandic waters, the Azores, or Northwest Africa are part of the same population as those from the Northwest Atlantic. In the Northwest Atlantic, seasonal movements of blue whales and habitat use, including the location of breeding and wintering areas, are poorly understood. In this study, we used satellite telemetry to track the seasonal movements of 24 blue whales from eastern Canada.

We provide the first record of the full migration of a blue whale from the western North Atlantic. We locate transiting corridors in eastern Canada, and what represents part of the western North Atlantic blue whale wintering, and possibly breeding or calving, area in and off the mid-Atlantic Bight. Our results confirm the extension of some key summer feeding areas into the fall, identify new ones, and provide evidence for sporadic foraging outside of the feeding season in this population. Finally, our study highlights underwater seamounts and other deep ocean structures as potentially important habitat for blue whales, and emphasizes the large scale (i.e., many thousands of square kilometers) one needs to consider for addressing conservation issues for this population.

Accessibility Notice

This document is available in PDF format. If the document is not accessible to you, please contact the Secretariat to obtain another appropriate format, such as regular print, large print, Braille or audio version.

Date modified: