Long-term
monitoring program effective in tracking seal populations over time
Date: September 5, 2018
Source: PLOS
A census
of annual pup production by Australian fur seal populations revealed the first
reduction since species-wide protection was implemented in 1975, according to a
study published September 5 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by
Rebecca McIntosh of the Phillip Island Nature Parks in Victoria, Australia, and
colleagues. The study also shows that the long-term monitoring program for the
Australian fur seal has effectively tracked population trends over time.
In the
marine environment, monitoring the abundance and population trends of a top
predator can provide measures of ecosystem health and management success. Fur
seals, Arctocephalus pusillus doriferus, are important upper trophic level
predators that, in Australia, are a protected marine species facing specific
challenges related to fisheries and aquaculture management, ecotourism,
potential impacts on seabirds, and response planning for oil spills and other
emergencies. For these reasons, it is important to obtain accurate information
about their abundance and population changes. An ad-hoc monitoring program
coordinated across multiple stakeholders conducted a range-wide census of live
pups in the Austral summers of 2002, 2007 and 2013. In the new study, McIntosh
and colleagues set out to assess whether the monitoring program for the
Australian fur seal is achieving its goals of determining pup abundance and
estimating population trends.
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