9087
Open
SC/67B/PH/04
Progress report on Southern Hemisphere Blue Whale Catalogue: Period May 2017-April 2018
Barbara Galletti Vernazzani, Paula Olson, Chandra Salgado-Kent
International Whaling Commission
2018
The Southern Hemisphere Blue Whale Catalogue has a total of 1,519 individual blue whale photo-identifications (photo-IDs) that include areas off Antarctica, Chile, Peru, Ecuador-Galapagos, Eastern Tropical Pacific (ETP), Australia, Timor Leste, New Zealand, southern Africa, Madagascar and Sri Lanka. From May 2017 to April 2018, SHBWC work focused on comparisons of catalogues from Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka. Future work will focus on comparisons among South America and ETP to be used for assessment purposes while between region comparisons to check for migration and connectivity will continue to be considered a second priority.