This article is a correction to:
Evidence of fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus velifera) recovery in the Canadian Pacific
Lynn Rannankari
Rianna Burnham†A Corrigendum on
Evidence of fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus velifera) recovery in the Canadian Pacific
By Rannankari L, Burnham R and Duffus D (2024) Front. Conserv. Sci. 5:1392039. doi: 10.3389/fcosc.2024.1392039
In the published article, there was an error in the population abundance number for fin whales that was reported by Wright et al. (2021), as well as two other text mistakes within the same paragraph.
A correction has been made to 4 Population abundance and structure, Paragraph 2. This previously stated:
“To date, an estimate of population abundance for fin whales in Canadian waters, especially for offshore regions is lacking where fin whales are presumed to be most numerous (COSEWIC, 2019). Dedicated, systematic surveys have estimated the population in BC to be approximately 400-500 individuals (2004-2005 survey, 496 individuals (95% CI: 202-1218) Williams and Thomas, 2007; 2004-2008 survey, 446 individuals (95% CI: 263-759) Best et al., 2015). Nichol et al. (2018) confirmed this estimate from surveys conducted between 2009 and 2014 (405 individuals (95% CI: 363-469)), complemented using photo-identification to better estimate the number of individuals. These surveys highlighted whale ‘hotspots’ in Hecate Strait, and Queen Charlotte and Caamano Sounds (Harvey et al., 2017; Figure 1). Sightings interpolated using density surface modeling from the 2018 PRISM survey suggested a total count of 23,692 (95% CI: 19,121-29,356) fin whales for British Columbia from 29 sightings (Wright et al., 2021), far exceeding earlier estimates (see COSEWIC, 2019). Much more of these efforts were given to offshore survey. For the north-coast region, in an area comparable to the earlier work of Best et al. (2015) but ten years later, the model predicted 2,893 fin whales (95% CI: 2,171-3,855, Wright et al., 2021). Each of these dedicated surveys highlighted similar areas of increased whale density in BC.”
The corrected sentence appears below:
“To date, an estimate of population abundance for fin whales in Canadian waters, especially for offshore regions is lacking where fin whales are presumed to be most numerous (COSEWIC, 2019). Dedicated, systematic surveys have estimated the population in BC to be approximately 400-500 individuals (2004-2005 survey, 496 individuals (95% CI: 202-1218) Williams and Thomas, 2007; 2004-2008 survey, 446 individuals (95% CI: 263-759) Best et al., 2015). Nichol et al. (2018) confirmed this estimate from surveys conducted between 2009 and 2014 (405 individuals (95% CI: 363-469)), complemented using photo-identification to better estimate the number of individuals. These surveys highlighted whale ‘hotspots’ in Hecate Strait, and Queen Charlotte and Caamano Sounds (Harvey et al., 2017; Figure 1). Sightings interpolated using density surface modelling from the 2018 PRISMM survey suggested a total abundance of 2,893 (95% CI: 2171 - 3855) fin whales in BC estimated from 235 sightings across two survey strata (Wright et al., 2021). This survey found over six times as many fin whale sightings in the offshore than the north coast stratum and, overall, exceeded earlier abundance estimates (see The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC), 2019)”.
The authors apologize for this error and state that this does not change the scientific conclusions of the article in any way. The original article has been updated.
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Keywords: fin whales, commercial whaling, population rebounding, acoustic monitoring, visual surveys, platforms of opportunity, catch records
Citation: Rannankari L, Burnham R and Duffus D (2025) Corrigendum: Evidence of fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus velifera) recovery in the Canadian Pacific. Front. Conserv. Sci. 5:1530440. doi: 10.3389/fcosc.2024.1530440
Received: 18 November 2024; Accepted: 18 December 2024;
Published: 13 January 2025.
Edited and Reviewed by:
Kristina Cammen, University of Maine, United StatesCopyright © 2025 Rannankari, Burnham and Duffus. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Lynn Rannankari, bHlubnJhbm5AdXZpYy5jYQ==
†These authors share first authorship