Humpback whale movements in a narrow and heavily-used shipping passage, Chile

Abstract The Magellan Strait is a narrow passage connecting the Pacific and Atlantic oceans in South America. An average of 2023 ships per year transit this corridor with 80% representing the international fleet. The southwestern part of the Strait in Chile is an important summer feeding area for humpback whales. Considering the risk to whales of feeding among dense ship traffic, the movements of 25 satellite-tagged whales relative to vessel density were analyzed, to provide policy recommendations for protecting the species from vessel collisions. A total of 3694 filtered whale positions from 21 individuals were obtained along the southwest passage. The daily range covered by individual whales was 8.8 km, and