SPLASH

Structure of Populations, Levels of Abundance, and Status of Humpbacks

A report on the SPLASH Symposium held in October 2009 in Quebec which includes extended abstracts of the presentations is available here.

The first report providing new abundance estimates of humpback whales in the entire North Pacific from SPLASH has been released. This report also provides the first results from all five seasons of the SPLASH effort. Findings from this report were highlighted in a recent news article in Nature and also in a press release issued by NOAA. Links to the Executive Summary or complete report are:

Executive Summary only of report as HTML or as PDF

Complete SPLASH report as PDF

SPLASH (Structure of Populations, Levels of Abundance and Status of Humpbacks) represents one of the largest international collaborative studies of any whale population ever conducted. It was designed to determine the abundance, trends, movements, and population structure of humpback whales throughout the North Pacific and to examine human impacts on this population. This study involved over 50 research groups and more than 400 researchers in 10 countries. It was supported by a number of agencies and organizations including the National Marine Fisheries Service, the National Marine Sanctuary Program, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Pacific Life Foundation, Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and Commission for Environmental Cooperation with additional support from a number of other organizations and governments for effort in specific regions. Results presented here include a comprehensive analysis of individual identification photographs. Additional analysis of human impacts, ecosystem markers (e.g., stable isotopes) and the genetic structure of populations are underway or planned pending further funding.

Field efforts were conducted on all known winter breeding regions for humpback whales in the North Pacific during three seasons (2004, 2005, 2006) and all known summer feeding areas during two seasons (2004, 2005). A total of 18,469 quality fluke identification photographs were taken during over 27,000 approaches of humpback whales. After reconciling all within and cross-regional matches (from both the primary match and rechecks), a total of 7,971 unique individuals were cataloged in SPLASH. A total of 6,178 tissue samples were also collected for genetic studies of population structure, with fairly even representation of wintering and feeding areas.

Reports and reference material for SPLASH