Vessel traffic disrupts the foraging behavior of southern resident killer whales Orcinus orca

Abstract

ESR Endangered Species Research Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsSpecials ESR 6:211-221 (2009) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/esr00154 Vessel traffic disrupts the foraging behavior of southern resident killer whales Orcinus orca David Lusseau1,*,**, David E. Bain2,**, Rob Williams3,5, Jodi C. Smith4 1University of Aberdeen, Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Tillydrone Ave, Aberdeen AB24 2TZ, UK 2University of Washington, Friday Harbor Laboratories, 620 University Road, Friday Harbor, Washington 98250, USA 3Sea Mammal Research Unit, Gatty Marine Laboratory, St Andrews University, St Andrews, Fife KY16 8LB, UK 4Coastal-Marine Research Group, Institute of Natural Resources, Massey University at Albany, Private Bag 102 904, North Shore MSC, New Zealand 5Present address: Marine Mammal Research Unit, University of British Columbia, 2202 Main Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada *Email: d.lusseau@abdn.ac.uk **These authors contributed equally to this article and can be considered joint first authors ABSTRACT: Vessel traffic may have contributed to southern resident killer whales Orcinus orca becoming endangered. To determine the importance of this threat, we measured the behavior of southern residents in the presence and absence of vessels from 2003 to 2005 at 2 different sites along San Juan Island, Washington, USA. We observed activity states of killer whale schools using scan sampling and collected information on the number of vessels present at various distances from those. We use first-order, time-discrete Markov chains to estimate state-transition probability matrices under varying boat exposure conditions. Transition probabilities between activity states were significantly affected by vessel traffic. In addition, there was a reduction in time spent foraging, as estimated from the stationary state budget from the Markov chains, confirming an effect also previously observed in northern resident killer whales. If reduced foraging effort results in reduced prey capture, this would result in decreased energy acquisition. Each school was within 400 m of a vessel most of the time during daylight hours from May through September. The high proportion of time southern resident killer whales spend in proximity to vessels raises the possibility that the short-term behavioral changes reported here can lead to biologically significant consequences. KEY WORDS: Whale watching · Killer whale · Disturbance · Behavioral disruption · Foraging Full text in pdf format PreviousNextCite this article as: Lusseau D , Bain DE , Williams R, Smith JC (2009) Vessel traffic disrupts the foraging behavior of southern resident killer whales Orcinus orca. Endang Species Res 6:211-221. https://doi.org/10.3354/esr00154Export citation Mail this link - Contents Mailing Lists - RSS Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in ESR Vol. 6, No. 3. Online publication date: January 02, 2009 Print ISSN: 1863-5407; Online ISSN: 1613-4796 Copyright © 2009 Inter-Research.