e-journal

A quantitative framework for investigating risk of deadly collisions between marine wildlife and boats

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1. Speed regulations of watercraft in protected areas are designed to reduce lethal collisions with wildlife but can
have economic consequences.We present a quantitative framework for investigating the risk of deadly collisions
between boats and wildlife.
2. We apply encounter rate theory to demonstrate how marine mammal–boat encounter rate can be used to predict
the expected number of deaths associated with management scenarios. We illustrate our approach withmanagement
scenarios for two endangered species: the Floridamanatee Trichechus manatus latirostris and the North
Atlantic right whale Eubalaena glacialis.We used a Monte Carlo simulation approach to demonstrate the uncertainty
that is associated with our estimate of relativemortality.
3. We show that encounter rate increased with vessel speed but that the expected number of encounters varies
depending on the boating activities considered. For instance, in a scenario involvingmanatees and boating activities
such as water skiing, the expected number of encounters in a given area (in a fixed time interval) increased
with vessel speed. In another scenario in which a vessel made a transit of fixed length, the expected number of
encounters decreases slightly with boat speed. In both cases, the expected number of encounters increased with
distanced travelled by the boat. For whales, we found a slight reduction (~0
1%) in the number of encounters
under a scenario where speed is unregulated; this reduction, however, is negligible, and overall expected relative
mortality was ~30% lower under the scenario with speed regulation. The probability of avoidance by the animal
or vessel was set to 0 because of lack of data, but we explored the importance of this parameter on themodel predictions. In fact, expected relative mortality under speed regulations decreases even further when the probability of avoidance is a decreasing function of vessel speed.
4. By applying encounter rate theory to the case of boat collisions with marine mammals, we gained new insights
about encounter processes between wildlife and watercraft. Our work emphasizes the importance of considering
uncertainty when estimating wildlife mortality. Finally, our findings are relevant to other systems and ecological
processes involving the encounter between moving agents.

Key-words: animal movement, effectiveness of speed zones, encounter rate, Florida manatee,marine mammals, North Atlantic right whale, protection zones, speed zones, wildlife collision

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Informasi Detail

Judul Seri

Methods in Ecology and Evolution

No. Panggil

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Penerbit

: British Ecological Society., 2016

Deskripsi Fisik

Methods in Ecology and Evolution 2016, 7, 42–50

Bahasa

English

ISBN/ISSN

doi: 10.1111/2041-21

Klasifikasi

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Tipe Isi

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Tipe Media

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Tipe Pembawa

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Edisi

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Subjek

Bilogi

Info Detail Spesifik

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Pernyataan Tanggungjawab

Wati/Agus

Versi lain/terkait

Lampiran Berkas

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