Whale entanglements disentangled through the lens of cumulative habitat compression
Fig 2
Comparison of reported humpback whales whale entanglements and population trends.
(A) Trends in reported entanglements and a representative population abundance of humpback whales within the California Current, 2000–2023; (B) relationship between entanglements and humpback whale abundance; residuals were derived from this relationship to evaluate a density-dependent control of entanglements through changes in habitat compression. Note that the residuals reflect the ‘excess entanglements’.