Abstract
Spatial Relationships between Gray Whales and Humans Track: Environmental Management Author(s): Alex Blake Every boreal winter, gray whales migrate to Baja California to calve and breed. Bahia, Madalena is only one of four known locations for gray whale breeding. As Bahía Magdalena has developed the Centre for Coastal Studies has collected five years of data relating to distribution of cow/calf pairs and single whales, abundance of whales within the bay, the acoustic environment in relation to shipping traffic, and the development of the community particularly with relation to whale watching tourism, aquaculture and economic growth. The project created a desktop GIS to map the data collected. Using the ArcGIS Spatial Analyst extension it is possible to see there is a clear variation between the types of whale that use different areas of the bay. Comparing this to the development of the surrounding communities and the increased use of the bay, it is possible to identify areas that are particularly at risk. Alex Blake University of Redlands 1111 E Central Avenue Apt ## 1 Redlands , CA 92374 US Phone: 19093799083 E-mail: alexander_blake@redlands.edu |
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