An analysis of historic (1908-1967) whaling records from British Columbia, Canada
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Analysis of data recorded from 24,862 whales killed by British Columbia coastal whaling stations between 1908 and 1967 revealed trends in the abundance, sex ratios, age structure and the distance from shore of sperm (Physeter macrocephalus), sei (Balaenoptera borealis), fin (Balaenoptera physalus), humpback (Megaptera novaeangliae) and blue (Balaenoptera musculus) whales. Trends in the relationships between records of where the whales were killed (n=l 0,275) and a simple oceanographic model were used to build generalized linear models, from which predictions of whale habitat were generated. The catch data were analyzed using annual and monthly mean values. Monthly and annual variation in whaling effort was deduced from accounts of the history of British Columbia coastal whaling, and biases arising from changes in effort were considered in the interpretation of the results. Predictive habitat models were produced at annual and monthly time scales based on an initial analysis of the univariate relationships between whale presence-absence and six independent predictor variables (depth, slope, depth class, sea surface temperature and salinity, and month). During the later years of whaling (1948 to 1967), the mean lengths of captured whales declined significantly in all five species and pregnancy rates dropped to near zero in fin, sei and blue whales. Monthly patterns in numbers killed revealed a summer migration of sei and blue whales past Vancouver Island, and confirms anecdotal suggestions that local populations of fin and humpback whales once spent extended periods in the coastal waters of British Columbia. Furthermore, the data strongly suggest that sperm whales mated (April-May) and calved (July-August) in British Columbia's offshore waters. The habitat models showed that the continental slope and a large area off the northwest coast Vancouver Island may represent critical habitat for sei, fin and male sperm whales. Female sperm whales, blue and humpback whales appeared less sensitive to the predictor variables, however, the sample size for these groups was significantly smaller than for the other species. The habitat predictions lend support to the hypotheses regarding sperm whale breeding and predict humpback whale habitat in sheltered bays and straits throughout coastal British Columbia. The habitat models also generated hypotheses about the relationships and processes that link these whale species to their environment. The historic whaling records revealed much about the migratory behaviour and distribution of the large whales species as they once were, and may continue to be, in the Northeast Pacific. Verifying the persistence of these trends in the remnant populations is a necessary and logical next step.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.003 | 0.008 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.002 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".