Estimated summer abundance and krill consumption of fin whales throughout the Scotia Sea during the 2018/2019 summer season.

Among large cetaceans in the Southern Hemisphere, fin whales were the most heavily exploited in terms of numbers taken during the period of intense industrial whaling. Recent studies suggest that, whilst some humpback whale populations in the Southern Hemisphere appears to have almost completely recovered to their estimated pre-whaling abundance, much less is known about the status of Southern Hemisphere fin whales. Circumpolar estimates in the 1990s suggest an abundance of about 5500 animals south of 60° S, while the IDCR/SOWER-2000 survey for the Scotia Sea and Antarctic Peninsula areas estimated 4670 fin whales within this region in the year 2000.

Predicting suitable coastal habitat for sei whales, southern right whales and dolphins around the Falkland Islands.

Species distribution models (SDMs) are valuable tools for describing the occurrence of species and predicting suitable habitats. This study used generalized additive models (GAMs) and MaxEnt models to predict the relative densities of four cetacean species (sei whale Balaeanoptera borealis, southern right whale Eubalaena australis, Peale's dolphin Lagenorhynchus australis, and Commerson's dolphin Cephalorhynchus commersonii) in neritic waters (≤100 m depth) around the Falkland Islands, using boat survey data collected over three seasons (2017-2019). The model predictor variables (PVs) included remotely sensed environmental variables (sea surface temperature, SST, and chlorophyll-a concentration) and static geographical variables (e.