Bowhead Whale Abundance Through Photographic Analysis: Data Analysis Supported by Minerals Management Service

摘要

The primary goal of this study was to provide joint funding support to the study titled Bowhead Whale Abundance Through Photographic Analysis. Specifically the intent was to support laboratory and reporting portions of this research program to estimate the abundance of bowhead whales in the Bering-Chukchi-Beaufort population. Bowhead whale abundance has been analyzed through aerial photographs in prior studies (e.g., Rugh 1990, Da-Silva et al. 2000, Schweder 2003), but all previous work was applied to photographs collected in only 1985 and 1986. With the documented change in the population size (George et al. 2004), and the potential that ice-based counts of whales migrating past Point Barrow might not be a good option in the future because of a warming climate, the process of conducting mark/recapture type analysis on images of bowhead whales increases in importance. In 2003 and 2004, bowheads were again photographed during their spring migration past Point Barrow (Koski et al. 2005). Accordingly, funds were sought to examine these images and conduct an abundance analysis based on rates of resightings of whales.