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ICES Journal of Marine Science: Journal du Conseil Advance Access originally published online on July 4, 2009
ICES Journal of Marine Science: Journal du Conseil 2009 66(10):2253-2266; doi:10.1093/icesjms/fsp191
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© 2009 International Council for the Exploration of the Sea. Published by Oxford Journals. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Sexual segregation of common minke whales (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) in Greenland, and the influence of sea temperature on the sex ratio of catches

Kristin L. Laidre1,3, Patrick J. Heagerty2, Mads Peter Heide-Jørgensen3, Lars Witting3 and Malene Simon3

1 Polar Science Center, APL, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98105, USA
2 Department of Biostatistics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98105, USA
3 Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, Box 570, 3900 Nuuk, Greenland

Correspondence to K. L. Laidre: tel: +1 206 616 9030; fax: +1 206 616 3142; e-mail: klaidre{at}apl.washington.edu

Laidre, K. L., Heagerty, P. J., Heide-Jørgensen, M. P., Witting, L., and Simon, M. 2009. Sexual segregation of common minke whales (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) in Greenland, and the influence of sea temperature on the sex ratio of catches. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 66: 2253–2266.

The harvest of common minke whales (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) in West Greenland has historically been skewed towards female whales, yet a complete analysis of spatial and temporal patterns of catch sex ratio has never been conducted. We examined trends in the sex ratio of catches over time, season, space, and relative to sea temperature using 2400 records from inshore Greenland subsistence whaling operations (1960–2006) and 2072 records from offshore Norwegian commercial operations (1968–1985). Logistic regression models were developed to examine the trend in sex ratio in three regions (Northwest, NW; Central West, CW; Southwest, SW) and by latitude. The highly skewed proportion of females in all catches was strongly positively correlated (r2 = 0.8) with latitude in the offshore catches (>100 km). Generalized linear models of inshore catches indicated slightly increasing though non-significant trends in the proportion of females taken off CW and NW Greenland and a significant declining trend off SW Greenland. Sensitivity analyses show that the declining inshore SW trend was entirely accounted for by the past 5 years (2002–2006) of data. Models containing both year and temperature interactions suggested that either parameter provided an equivalent explanation of the variation in trends across regions.

Keywords: Greenland, minke whale, oceanography, sea temperature, sex ratio, whaling

Received 10 June 2008; accepted 14 May 2009; advance access publication 4 July 2009.


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