Testing whether the Availability of Chinook Salmon is Insufficient to Support a Healthy Southern Resident Killer Whale Population

近年来，南部居民虎鲸的身体状况不佳，这表明它们无法 获得足够的首选猎物（奇努克鲑鱼），以满足他们的日常需要。目前尚不清楚这是否是 由于过度捕捞或环境变化导致鲑鱼数量和质量下降， 由于船只交通和声音干扰，虎鲸无法接近。我们的目标是1）测试 假设奇努克鲑鱼的可用性不足以支持南部的健康人口， 居民虎鲸; 2）增加有关这一重要猎物物种在海上分布的知识， 影响它的因素; 3）确定成年奇努克人可用于虎鲸的时间， 渔业;和4）确定虎鲸成功觅食所需的条件。我们将实现我们的 目的：a）构建比较生物能量学模型，以预测每天增加的食物需求量， 南方和北方虎鲸的数量减少，并考虑到环境的变化， 捕捞压力和船只扰动，以评估对营养状况的影响。我们还将跟踪精细尺度 个别虎鲸的运动与跟踪和监测的运动标记 使用停泊在温哥华岛内沃茨的接收器网络捕鱼。我们的研究 建议是新颖和及时的，并补充了我们正在与DFO合作进行的研究， 解决奇努克的可用性是否足以支持英国南部居民虎鲸 哥伦比亚。我们的研究将对渔业管理、 虎鲸，以及我们不列颠哥伦比亚省南部许多沿海社区的经济。拓宽了 加拿大的恢复研究基地，加速海洋哺乳动物科学家的发展，并最终 增加可用的科学信息，以支持政府决策和保护工作 一种重要的鲸鱼物种

The poor body condition of southern resident killer whales in recent years points to them not being able to obtain enough of their preferred prey (Chinook salmon) to meet their daily needs. It is unknown whether this is due to reduced abundance and quality of salmon from overfishing or environmental change, or reduced salmon accessibility by killer whales due to vessel traffic and acoustic disturbance. Our objectives are to 1) test the hypothesis that the availability of Chinook salmon is insufficient to support a healthy population of southern resident killer whales; 2) increase knowledge about the at-sea distribution of this important prey species, and the factors that influence it; 3) determine the time that adult Chinook are available to killer whales and fisheries; and 4) determine the conditions required for killer whales to successfully forage. We will achieve our objectives by a) constructing comparative bioenergetics models to predict daily food requirements of increasing and decreasing pods of southern and northern killer whales, and incorporating environmental variability, fishing pressure, and vessel disturbance to assess impact on nutritional status. We will also track the fine-scale movements of individual killer whales in conjunction with tracking and monitoring the movements of tagged fish using a network of receivers moored in the inside waters of Vancouver Island. The research we are proposing is novel and timely, and complements ongoing research we are doing in partnership with DFO to resolve whether availability of Chinook is sufficient to support southern resident killer whales in British Columbia. Our research will have direct implications for the management of fisheries, the conservation of killer whales, and economies of many of our coastal communities in southern British Columbia. It broadens the base of recovery research in Canada, accelerates the development of marine mammal scientists, and ultimately increases the scientific information available to support government decision-making and conservation efforts for a priority whale species.