Abundance of humpback whales in Oceania (South Pacific), 1999-2004
2006. Abundance of humpback whales in Oceania (South Pacific), 1999-2004. Pages 1-10. In South Pacific Whale Research Consortium, Baker CS, Garrigue C, Constantine R, Madon B, Poole M, Hauser N, Clapham P, Donoghue M, Russell K, O'Callahan T, Paton D, Mattila D: Inter-sessional Workshop for the Comprehensive Assessment of Southern Hemisphere Humpback Whales. Hobart, Tasmania. 3-7 April 2006
The abundance of humpback whales on winter breeding grounds throughout Oceania (South Pacific) was estimated by sighting-resighting analysis of individual identification photographs collected from 1999 to 2004. Photographs were collected with comparable effort across the six years in four primary island breeding grounds: New Caledonia, Tonga (Vava'u), the Cook Islands and French Polynesia (Mo'orea and Rurutu). Photographs were collected in one or more years in eight other island regions or subregions: Vanuatu, Fiji, Niue, Samoa, American Samoa, the Ha'apai group (Tonga), Eua (Tonga) and Niuatoputapu (Tonga). Catalogues from all regions were reconciled through comparisons during annual meetings of the South Pacific Whale Research Consortium. Across the six years, a total of 1148 annual sightings of 1021 individual whales were documented. Most resightings occurred within regions (between years), with a smaller number of resightings between regions (across years). Only two whales were resighted in more than one region or subregion during the same season.