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Long-term monitoring of southern right whale feeding behavior indicates that Península Valdés is more than a calving ground

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Abstract

Península Valdés, Patagonia, Argentina, is recognized as a calving ground for the southern right whale (SRW, Eubalaena australis) population from the southwestern Atlantic Ocean. Previous studies have reported that SRWs feed during their calving season, but little is known about their foraging ecology in this area. Here, we collected photo data of SRWs at Península Valdés from 2007 to 2019 to monitor and investigate the SRW feeding frequency and to know whether calves also feed on zooplankton (i.e., the diet composed of both milk and solid food). In addition, we systematically reviewed studies on the composition and abundance of zooplankton to assess the available prey for SRWs in the area. Finally, we examined satellite-derived chlorophyll-a (chl-a) to study if the chl-a variability shows any relationship with SRW feeding. Observations show that at Península Valdés, SRWs feed at and below the surface, primarily on calanoid copepods. We also found evidence that SRWs feed near-bottom. In addition, we report calves feeding at surface including the first-ever photographs documentation. Whales feed mainly during austral spring, with a higher mean frequency in November. A time lag of 1 month was found between highest chl-a levels and the highest number of feeding events observed. Over the 12-year study period, we observed that whales were foraging yearly, which indicates that feeding in this calving area is more frequent than prior studies suggested. These data reveal the importance of the waters off Península Valdés as a multi-use habitat for SRW.

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All data produced from this study are provided in this manuscript.

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Acknowledgements

We are extremely grateful to the whale watch companies Whales Argentina, Southern Spirit, Hydrosport, Bottazzi Whale Watch, Punta Ballena, and Peke Sosa for logistic support in the field. We extend our gratitude to Raúl Passarotti, Matías Arenas, Sofía Benegas, Federico Arribere, Claudia Martitsch, Diego Moreno, Javier Crespi, Fernando Varsky, Francisco Paez, Lucas Beltramino, Santiago Fernández, Lucía Epherra, and Julia Deías Spreng for providing photographs of whales feeding. Permits were granted by Dirección de Fauna y Flora Silvestre and Subsecretaría de Conservación y Áreas Protegidas of Chubut Province, Argentina. Special thanks to Nora Glembocki for helping with satellite images and Ariadna Nocera for assistance with the preparation of the map. We also thank NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Ocean Ecology Laboratory, Ocean Biology Processing Group, MODIS-Aqua Ocean Color Data, and NASA’s Giovanni system for the distribution of the ocean color data. The authors are grateful to Dr. V. Rowntree and an anonymous reviewer, whose comments significantly improved the paper.

Funding

This work was supported by PICT-2018–02550 grant from the Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica (MINCYT, Argentina) and the PADI Foundation to Dr. V. C. D’Agostino.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro para el Estudio de Sistemas Marinos (CESIMAR), CCT CENPAT, CONICET, Blvd. Brown 2915, U9120ACV, Puerto Madryn, Chubut, Argentina

    Valeria C. D’Agostino, Federico M. Heredia, Enrique A. Crespo & Mariana Degrati

  2. Proyecto Patagonia Documental, Avenida de las Ballenas 1er bajada, U9121XAQ, Puerto Pirámides, Chubut, Argentina

    Alexis Fioramonti, Pablo Fioramonti & Ángel Vélez

  3. Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia, San Juan Bosco, Blvd. Brown 3150, U9120ACV, Puerto Madryn, Chubut, Argentina

    Mariana Degrati

Authors
  1. Valeria C. D’Agostino
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  2. Federico M. Heredia
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  3. Enrique A. Crespo
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  4. Alexis Fioramonti
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  5. Pablo Fioramonti
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  6. Ángel Vélez
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  7. Mariana Degrati
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Contributions

VCD originally formulated the idea. VCD and MD provided the funding and performed the fieldwork. AF, PF, and AV took the photographs from whale-watching tours for all 12 years. VCD analyzed the photos and wrote the manuscript. FMH conducted the statistical analyses. FMH, EAC, and MD reviewed and edited the original draft. All authors contributed critically to the manuscript and gave the final approval for publication.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Valeria C. D’Agostino.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Video S1: Surface filter feeding of southern right whales (Eubalaena australis) recorded in Península Valdés (MP4 6702 KB)

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Video S2: Subsurface filter feeding of southern right whales (Eubalaena australis) recorded in Península Valdés (MP4 2803 KB)

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D’Agostino, V.C., Heredia, F.M., Crespo, E.A. et al. Long-term monitoring of southern right whale feeding behavior indicates that Península Valdés is more than a calving ground. Mar Biol 170, 43 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-023-04181-9

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