Abstract. -Accurate and precise 

 descriptions of behavioral indicators 

 of human activities which disturb 

 cetaceans are required to better con- 

 trol adverse human impacts on these 

 animals. We hypothesize that the 

 application of a technique used to 

 remove a small piece of innervated 

 tissue, a biopsy darting procedure, is 

 likely to result in the display of such 

 behavioral indicators. In order to 

 describe such displays, we recorded 

 behavior of 22 humpback whales 

 Megaptera novaeangliae before and 

 after biopsy procedures in the south- 

 ern Gulf of Maine. Reactions varied 

 considerably among animals. Al- 

 though respiratory responses were 

 not consistent, biopsied whales gen- 

 erally decreased their ratio of sur- 

 face to dive time and their net move- 

 ment rate. Hard tail flicks occurred 

 as an immediate reaction in approx- 

 imately half the cases. Although 31 

 behaviors were tested for variation, 

 only hard tail flicks significantly 

 increased in either the number of 

 animals that displayed them or the 

 overall frequency of occurrence dur- 

 ing postbiopsy reaction periods. 

 While not statistically significant, 

 some increase was noted in the fre- 

 quency of trumpet blows and tail 

 slashes, while slow swimming and 

 apparent investigative behavior 

 were noted to decrease. The strong- 

 est reactions, observed in two cases, 

 occurred when the dart and retrieval 

 line briefly snagged the whale's 

 flukes. These findings complement 

 and extend other studies on the re- 

 sponse of baleen whales to human ac- 

 tivity at sea. 



Behavioral reactions of liumpback 

 wfiales Megaptera novaeangliae 

 to biopsy procedures 



Mason T. Welnrich 



Cetacean Research Unit, PO Box 159, Gloucester, Massachusetts 01930 



Richard H. Lambertson 



Department of Physiological Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine 

 University of Florida, Box J- 144, JHMHC. Gainesville, Florida 32610 



Cynthia R. Belt 

 Mark R. Schilling 

 Heidi J. Iken 



Cetacean Research Unit. P O Box 159. Gloucester. Massachusetts 01930 



Stephen E. Syrjala 



Resource Assessment and Conservation Engineering, Alaska Fisheries Science Center 



National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA 



7600 Sand Point Way NE, Seattle, Washington 981 15-0070 



Manuscript accepted 1 June 1992. 

 Fishery Bulletin, U.S. 90:588-598 (1992). 



The humpback whale Megaptera no- 

 vaeangliae is an endangered species 

 that has been protected from com- 

 mercial catches since the mid-1960s. 

 Protection from himting in the North 

 Atlantic portion of its range extends 

 back to 1955. The most recent popu- 

 lation estimates suggest close to 

 10,000 animals remain worldwide, 

 with 5500 in the western North At- 

 lantic (Johnson and Wolman 1985). 



The endangered status of this spe- 

 cies as well as its affinity for near- 

 shore habits has brought increasing 

 concern that the collective effects of 

 industrial development, resource ex- 

 ploitation, and rapid increase in the 

 whale watching industry could result 

 in displacement, habitat degradation, 

 and behavior modification. It thus 

 has become important to determine 

 whether human activity that is not 

 directly lethal to individual whales 

 could still have deleterious effects on 

 the recovery of this species. 



To assess potential deleterious 

 effects of artificial stimuli on the 

 normal behavior of a whale, defini- 

 tions of disturbed behavior must be 



clarified. Disturbed behavior can be 

 defined as behavior that results from 

 a noxious stimulus that would not 

 otherwise have occurred. Previous 

 observations have been made under 

 conditions of potential disturbance, 

 such as the presence of boats or 

 divers or the production of under- 

 water noise (Baker and Herman 

 1982, Malme et al. 1983 and 1985, 

 Bauer and Herman 1985, Richardson 

 et al. 1985). However, a cause-and- 

 effect relationship between the stim- 

 ulus and a whale's response has been 

 difficult or impossible to achieve, 

 since baseline data on behavioral 

 reactions to clearly noxious stimuli 

 are almost entirely lacking. 



Since 1979, humpback whales have 

 been studied intensively in the south- 

 ern Gulf of Maine to evaluate the 

 demographics, behavior, and ecology 

 of a group of annually-returning in- 

 dividuals (Mayo et al. 1985, Weinrich 

 1985 and 1986, Clapham and Mayo 

 1987). In 1983, the University of 

 Florida began studies to determine 

 the genetic characteristics and sex of 

 known individuals in this group of 



588 



