ABSTRACT: Humpback whales Megaptera novaeangliae were severely depleted by commercial whaling. Understanding key factors in their recovery is a crucial step for their conservation worldwide. In Oceania, the Chesterfield-Bellona archipelago was a primary whaling site in the 19^th century, yet has been left almost unaffected by anthropogenic activities since. We present the results of the first multidisciplinary dedicated surveys in the archipelago assessing humpback whale populations 2 centuries post-whaling. We encountered 57 groups during 24 survey days (2016-2017), among which 35 whales were identified using photographs of natural markings (photo-ID), 38 using genotyping and 22 using both. Humpback whales were sparsely distributed (0.041 whales km^-1): most sightings concentrated in shallow inner-reef waters and neighbouring offshore shallow banks. The recently created marine protected area covers most of the areas of high predicted habitat suitability and high residence time from satellite-tracked whales. Surprisingly for a breeding area, sex ratios skewed towards females (1:2.4), and 45% of females were with calf. Connectivity was established with the New Caledonia breeding area to the east (mtDNA F_ST = 0.001, p > 0.05, 12 photo-ID and 10 genotype matches) and with the Australian Great Barrier Reef breeding area to the west (mtDNA F_ST = 0.006, p > 0.05). Movement of satellite-tracked whales and photo-ID matches also suggest connections with the east Australian migratory corridor. This study confirms that humpback whales still inhabit the Chesterfield-Bellona archipelago 2 centuries post whaling, and that this pristine area potentially plays a role in facilitating migratory interchange among breeding grounds of the western South Pacific.

中文翻译：

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在南太平洋珊瑚海的历史捕鲸热点中寻找座头鲸

摘要：座头鲸Megaptera novaeangliae被商业捕鲸严重消耗。了解其恢复的关键因素是对其全球保护的关键一步。在大洋洲，切斯特菲尔德群岛贝罗纳在19个主要的捕鲸网站^日世纪，但已留下的，因为人类活动几乎不受影响。我们介绍了群岛上首次跨学科专项调查的结果，该调查评估了捕鲸后2个世纪的座头鲸种群。我们在24个调查日内（2016-2017）遇到了57个群体，其中使用自然标记照片（photo-ID）识别了35条鲸鱼，使用基因分型法识别了38条鲸鱼，同时使用这两种方法识别了22条鲸鱼。座头鲸分布稀疏（0.041鲸鱼km ^-1）：大多数目光集中在浅礁内水域和邻近的近海浅滩。最近建立的海洋保护区涵盖了预测的高栖息地适应性和卫星追踪鲸鱼的高停留时间的大部分区域。出乎意料的是，对于一个繁殖地区，性别比例偏向雌性（1：2.4），而雌性中有45％的人是小牛。与东部的新喀里多尼亚繁殖区（mtDNA F _ST = 0.001，p> 0.05，有12个带照片的ID和10个基因型匹配）和与西部的澳大利亚大堡礁繁殖区（mtDNA F _ST）建立了连通性= 0.006，p> 0.05）。卫星跟踪的鲸鱼和带有照片身份证的火柴的移动也暗示了与东澳大利亚迁徙走廊的联系。这项研究证实，鲸鱼捕鲸后两个世纪，座头鲸仍栖息在切斯特菲尔德-贝洛纳群岛，并且该原始地区可能在促进南太平洋西部繁殖地之间的迁徙互换中发挥作用。