Home Methods 1 | Photo Identification | Mark and Recapture Biopsy | Summer Feeding Areas, Wintering Grounds and Migration | Human Impact | Population Estimates
Activity 1: Questions about SPLASH | Activity 2: Interpreting Graphs | Activity 3: Mark and Recapture | Activity 4: Estimating Humpback Population Growth | Activity 5: Whale Tails: Photo ID | Activity Answers
1. How many square miles are in the North Pacific Basin? __________________________
2. What were four goals of the SPLASH research project?
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3. How many researchers were involved in this project? ____________________________
4. What was one of the major successes of SPLASH?
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5. What were the large research ships used for?
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6. In the 1970’s, what did researchers discover about the flukes of humpback whales?
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7. Describe what Photo ID is?
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8. What is a “match”?
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9. What is Photo ID used for?
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10. How many photo ID pictures were taken during SPLASH? ________________________
11. How did whale biologists study whale populations prior to the discovery of Photo ID?
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12. What is “mark and recapture”?
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13. How is a whale actually “marked”? “Recaptured”?
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14. What is a biopsy sample and how is collected?
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15. How do whale biologists use biopsy samples?
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16.In general, where do whales travel to in the winter and why?
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17. Where is the main wintering area in the North Pacific?
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18. What is one reason why whales tend to return to the same area each year?
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19. Why do humpbacks migrate to northern latitudes in the summer?
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20. Using the map of summer feeding areas, name 3 of the feeding grounds:
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21. What was special about the discovery of the humpback that was photo ID’d in the Revillagigedos and the Commander Islands?
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22. How are the Southern Hemisphere humpbacks using the waters off Central America?
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23. What is the importance of the “match” of the Antarctic humpback that was seen off Costa Rica in 1995?
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24. What are some ways that humans negatively impact humpbacks?
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25. What is one possible reason that the Southern California humpbacks have such high levels of DDT?
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26. What are two of the most destructive type of fishing gear to a humpback?