Baleen whale cortisol levels reveal a physiological response to 20th century whaling

Stephen J. Trumble (), Stephanie A. Norman, Danielle D. Crain, Farzaneh Mansouri, Zach C. Winfield, Richard Sabin, Charles W. Potter, Christine M. Gabriele and Sascha Usenko ()
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Stephen J. Trumble: Baylor University
Stephanie A. Norman: Marine-Med: Marine Research, Epidemiology, and Veterinary Medicine
Danielle D. Crain: Baylor University
Farzaneh Mansouri: Baylor University
Zach C. Winfield: Baylor University
Richard Sabin: Natural History Museum
Charles W. Potter: Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History
Christine M. Gabriele: Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve
Sascha Usenko: Baylor University

Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract One of the most important challenges researchers and managers confront in conservation ecology is predicting a population’s response to sub-lethal stressors. Such predictions have been particularly elusive when assessing responses of large marine mammals to past anthropogenic pressures. Recently developed techniques involving baleen whale earplugs combine age estimates with cortisol measurements to assess spatial and temporal stress/stressor relationships. Here we show a relationship between baseline-corrected cortisol levels and corresponding whaling counts of fin, humpback, and blue whales in the Northern Hemisphere spanning the 20th century. We also model the impact of alternative demographic and environmental factors and determine that increased anomalies of sea surface temperature over a 46-year mean (1970–2016) were positively associated with cortisol levels. While industrial whaling can deplete populations by direct harvest, our data underscore a widespread stress response in baleen whales that is peripheral to whaling activities or associated with other anthropogenic change.

Date: 2018
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-07044-w

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