Spatio-temporal abundance of sea otters in Glacier Bay National Park from 1993 to 2018
Womble JN, Williams PJ, Lu X, Taylor LF, Esslinger GG. 2020. Spatio-temporal abundance of sea otters in Glacier Bay National Park from 1993 to 2018. Natural Resource Data Series. NPS/SEAN/NRDS—2020/1283. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado
In 2015, sea otters (Enhydra lutris kenyoni) were identified as a “vital sign” in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve and an effort was initiated that was built upon existing data collected by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) from 1992 to 2012 to understand better the ecological processes governing changes in sea otter distribution and abundance. The new effort, a collaboration between the NPS Southeast Alaska Inventory & Monitoring Network (SEAN), USGS, Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve (GLBA), and Colorado State University (CSU) combined data from observer-based aerial surveys and aerial photographic surveys to develop contemporary modeling methods and an adaptive monitoring framework to minimize model uncertainty and maximize survey efficiency (Williams et al. 2017a, 2017b, 2018; Womble et al. 2018). The development of a robust quantitative framework for monitoring sea otters is important for evaluating population status, spatial distribution, and abundance within Glacier Bay and contributing to Alaska-wide sea otter abundance estimates, which are required under the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972. This report presents methods and results from monitoring efforts conducted by NPS from 2017-2018 and includes data collected by USGS from 1992-2012 (Esslinger et al. 2015, Esslinger 2019).
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Womble, Jamie; Williams, Perry; Lu, Xinyi; Taylor, Louise; Esslinger, George
- Date of Issue
- 2020-06
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- GLBA , NRSS , SEAN
- Keywords
- Alaska, Enhydra lutris kenyoni, Glacier Bay National Park, long-term monitoring, sea otter, spatio-temporal abundance