Historical summer distribution of the endangered North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis): a hypothesis based on environmental preferences of a congeneric species

摘要: ABSTRACTAim To obtain a plausible hypothesis for the historical distribution of NorthAtlantic right whales (NARWs) (Eubalaena glacialis) in their summer feedinggrounds. Previously widespread North Atlantic, after centuries hunt-ing, these survive as small population off eastern America.Because exploitation began before formal records started, informationabout is fragmentary.Location Atlantic and Pacific oceans.Methods We linked (E. japon-ica; from 19th-century American whaling logbooks) with oceanographic data togenerate species model. Assuming that two have simi-lar environmental preferences, model was projected into Atlanticto predict suitability NARWs. The reliability predic-tions assessed by comparing results recentrecords Atlantic.Results predicts suitable conditions over wide,mostly offshore band across Atlantic. Predictions are well supportedby recent records, but discrepancies some areas indicate lowerdiscriminative ability coastal, shallow-depth areas, suggesting this modelmainly describes whales.Main conclusions Our suggest range NARWconsisted relatively narrow (width c. 10° latitude), extending fromthe coast America to northern Norway, Grand Banksof Newfoundland, south Greenland Iceland, north British Islesand Norwegian Sea. These highlight possibilities additionalresearch both on history current distri-bution species. In particular, better survey coverage whalinggrounds could help inform conservation efforts endangered species.More generally, study illustrates challenges opportunities usinghistorical understand original highly depletedspecies.KeywordsBoosted regression trees, Eubalaena, distribution, whale,species models, whaling.