Following the Food: Dynamic, Seasonal Changes in the Fine-Scale Distribution of Foraging Minke Whales Within a Scottish Marine Protected Area (MPA)

Environmental heterogeneity is especially important in determining the distribution and spatial management of marine mammals. Intra-annual changes in distribution exhibited by highly mobile species such as baleen whales, however, present a challenge to traditional area-based management measures which should be accounted for in the designations, but these data are typically lacking. In the present study, we investigated the seasonal variables influencing the spatio-temporal distribution of feeding/foraging minke whales in the Southern Trench MPA in northeast Scotland. A presence–absence model was selected to determine the associations of feeding/foraging whales with areas of high prey density and other environmental determinants. Whale presence was strongly correlated with high burrowed sandeel density (BSD) in May and June and offshore thermal fronts (derived from the standard deviation of sea-surface temperature (SST SD)) from June to September. Both were concluded to be valuable proxies for the distribution of available prey and provided a compelling explanation for observed spatio-temporal shifts and high intraannual variability of whales from our long-term data. The present findings illustrate the value of prey data inclusion in habitat models for baleen whales on their feeding grounds, and advocate for a more dynamic, ecosystem-based approach to management for these highly mobile protected whales.