Abstract Close-kin mark-recapture (CKMR) has recently emerged as an alternative for some situations where other abundance estimation methods are hard to apply. The age of the sampled individuals is very informative for CKMR. In the current paper we address the situation that age is unobserved, and we derive mathematical formulas for the resulting CKMR machinery. Expressions for the sampling probability for first- and second-order relationships are derived under simplifying assumptions: (1) the sample consists of r…

Abstract Sparse Bayesian Learning, and more specifically the Relevance Vector Machine (RVM), can be used in supervised learning for both classification and regression problems. Such methods are particularly useful when applied to big data in order to find a sparse (in weight space) representation of the model. This paper demonstrates that the Template Model Builder (TMB) is an accurate and flexible computational framework for implementation of sparse Bayesian learning methods.The user of TMB is only required to sp…

This study investigated the close kinship structure of southern right whales on feeding grounds during austral summer seasons. The study was based on biopsy samples of 171 individual whales, which were genotyped with 14 microsatellite DNA loci. Kinship was investigated by using the LOD (Log Odds) score, a relatedness index for a pair of genotypes. Based on a cut-off point of LOD PO > 6, which was chosen to balance false positives and negatives, a total of 28 dyads were inferred. Among these, 25 were classified …

No abstracts are to be cited without prior reference to the author.Statistical modeling and estimation form an integral part of fisheries science. Heterogeneity in parameters arises in almost every study, along the axes of time, space and possibly other dimensions. Examples include: Mortality changing over time in mark-recapture studies (Maunder et al, 2007), abundance varying spatially (Skaug et al 2004). Key question How much heterogeneity to allow? In practice this means estimating a variance parameter. Typical…

No abstracts are to be cited without prior reference to the author.Minke whales are the most abundance species of baleen whales in the North Atlantic. As part of current management of minke whales in Norwegian and adjacent waters, a DNA-register have been established. The register ensures that samples are taken of each animal caught under the Norwegian catch quota, and that a DNA-profile is established and stored in a database from each individual whale. Previous studies have indicated that genetic population sub-…