Long‐term survival of humpback whales radio‐tagged in Alaska from 1976 through 1978

摘要: Invasive tags designed to provide information on animal movements through radio or satellite monitoring have tremendous potential for the study of whales and other cetaceans. However, date there been no published studies survival tagged animals over periods years decades. Researchers from National Marine Mammal Laboratory Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution tracked five humpback with implanted in southeastern Alaska August 1976 July 1977, two Prince William Sound, Alaska, June 1978. All seven these individually identified were resighted at least 20 yr after first being tagged, observed more than 30 yr; some them are among most North Pacific. Photos tagging sites taken during subsequent operations show persistent but superficial scarring indication infection. These pioneering field demonstrated both long-term short-term effects deploying tags, which time larger invasive those typically used today.