High-density areas for harbor porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) identified by satellite tracking

By S. Sveegaard, J. Teilmann, Jakob Tougaard, R. Dietz, K. Mouritsen, G. Desportes, Ursula Siebert. 2011

136 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The population status of harbor porpoises has been of concern for several years, and the establishment of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) has been suggested as a method to protect the harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena, Linneaus 1758) and other small cetaceans. In order to designate MPAs, high-density areas for the species must be identified. Spatial distribution of small cetaceans is usually assessed from ship or aerial surveys. As a potentially more accurate alternative, this study examined the movements and area preferences of 64 harbor porpoises, satellite tagged between 1997 and 2007, in order to determine the distribution in the North Sea, the western Baltic, and the waters in between. Results show that harbor porpoises are not evenly distributed, but congregate in nine high-density areas within the study area. Several of these areas are subject to significant seasonal variation. The study found no differences in the home range size of males and females, but immature harbor porpoises have larger home ranges than mature porpoises. The use of satellite telemetry for identifying areas of high harbor porpoise density can be of key importance when designating MPAs.

Subfields: Ecology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/649d562d1173371e3264fd4023073bf430cc47c7

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Citations in the corpus

Confusion reigns? A review of marine megafauna interactions with tidal-stream environments (2015, background): “Conversely, wide-ranging migratory species may travel considerable distances between foraging hotspots which may include tidal-stream sites, and possibly move from one such site to another (Read & Westgate 1997, Johnston et al. 2005a, Sveegaard et al. 2011, Thompson 2012).”
To ping or not to ping: the use of active acoustic devices in mitigating interactions between small cetaceans and gillnet fisheries (2013, background): “Given the large ranges of individual porpoises in these waters (e.g. Sveegaard et al. 2011) and the variety of habitats available, it seems unlikely that exclusion from important habitat will be a serious problem at a population level.”