The following *Open Access* paper was published Dec 21 2023 at
https://www.int-res.com/articles/meps_oa/m725p167.pdf
Uncertain bioenergetics of North Atlantic right whales sprog
Jasmin C. Hütt1,2,*, Peter Corkeron2,3, Julie M. van der Hoop2 , Michael
J. Moore2
1 Department of Biology, Kiel University, 24118 Kiel, Germany 2
Department of Biology, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole,
MA 02543, USA 3 Present address: Centre for Planetary Health and Food
Security, Griffith University, Nathan, Queensland 4111, Australia
ABSTRACT: Without substantive reduction in anthropogenic trauma,
Critically Endangered North Atlantic right whales Eubalaena glacialis
(NARWs) risk extinction. Decreasing population size is attributable to 2
main issues besides vessel collision: entanglement in fishing gear and
changes in food availability due to ecosystem changes in the face of
climate disruption. Both can affect NARW energetics, leading to reduced
body condition, decreased reproductive success of individuals, and
deterioration of overall population health. To measure the impact of
these stressors and their interaction, energetic costs associated with
entanglement and starvation were incorporated in a bioenergetics model,
established for a generic female right whale. We compared models for a
NARW living now, one from 2 decades ago, when the species’ abundance was
increasing at ap - proximately 2% yr−1, and a southern right whale (SRW)
from a population increasing at approximately 6% yr−1. Parameter
uncertainty associated with daily estimates of energy income, basal
metabolic rate, and possible influences of baleen rack disruption from
entanglement was so great that differences between the 3 generic right
whale females were indistinguishable. Therefore, we included a stunted
whale in the model. It was also indistinguishable from our first 3 model
whales. Further, it made robust predictions of NARW energy budgets, let
alone the impact of specific stressors of varying intensity, impossible.
The capacity of bioenergetic modeling to inform conservation management
of NARWs will be substantially enhanced by resolving these parameter
uncertainties.
KEY WORDS: Bioenergetics model · Energy budget · Sublethal stressor ·
Reproductive success · Entanglement · Eubalaena glacialis · Cetacea
--
Michael J Moore Vet. M.B., Ph.D.
Biology Department
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
We Are All Whalers <https://www2.whoi.edu/staff/mmoore/we-are-all-whalers/>
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