Assessing environmental changes in Southern Ocean ecosystems is difficult due to its remoteness and data sparsity. Monitoring marine predators that respond rapidly to environmental variation may enable us to track anthropogenic effects on ecosystems. Yet, many long-term datasets of marine predators are incomplete because they are spatially constrained and/or track ecosystems already modified by industrial fishing and whaling in the latter half of the 20th century. Here, we assess the contemporary offshore distribution of a wide-ranging marine predator, the southern right whale (SRW, Eubalaena australis), that forages on copepods and krill from ~30°S to the Antarctic ice edge (>60°S). We analyzed carbon and nitrogen isotope values of 1,002 skin samples from six genetically distinct SRW populations using a customized assignment approach that accounts for temporal and spatial variation in the Southern Ocean phytoplankton isoscape. Over the past three decades, SRWs increased their use of mid-latitude foraging grounds in the south Atlantic and southwest (SW) Indian oceans in the late austral summer and autumn and slightly increased their use of high-latitude (>60°S) foraging grounds in the SW Pacific, coincident with observed changes in prey distribution and abundance on a circumpolar scale. Comparing foraging assignments with whaling records since the 18th century showed remarkable stability in use of mid-latitude foraging areas. We attribute this consistency across four centuries to the physical stability of ocean fronts and resulting productivity in mid-latitude ecosystems of the Southern Ocean compared with polar regions that may be more influenced by recent climate change.

Biology Department University of New Mexico Albuquerque NM 87131 0001

British Antarctic Survey Cambridge CB3 0ET United Kingdom

Centre for Coastal Studies Provincetown MA 02657

Collégial International Sainte Anne Montreal QC H8S 2M8 Canada

Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas Laboratorio de Ecología Evolutiva Humana Facultad de Ciencias Sociales de la Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires 7631 Buenos Aires Argentina

Cooperative Institute for Climate Ecosystem and Ocean Studies University of Washington and Marine Mammal Laboratory Alaska Fisheries Science Center National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Seattle WA 98112

Department of Biology and Ecology Faculty of Science University of Ostrava Ostrava 701 03 Czech Republic

Department of Biology University of Florida Gainesville FL 32611

Department of Environment Land Water and Planning Warrnambool VIC 3280 Australia

Department of Fisheries Wildlife and Conservation Sciences Oregon State University Corvallis OR 97365

Department of Natural History NTNU University Museum Norwegian University of Science and Technology 7491 Trondheim Norway

Department of Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania Hobart 7001 Australia

Department of Zoology Faculty of Science Charles University Prague 116 36 Czech Republic

Diversidad Biológica 4 Universidad Nacional de Córdoba Córdoba X5000HUA Argentina

Dyer Island Conservation Trust Great White House Kleinbaai Van Dyks Bay 7220 South Africa

Ecological Marine Services Pty Ltd Bundaberg 4670 QLD Australia

Environmental Law Initiative Wellington 6011 Aotearoa New Zealand

Geomar Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel 24148 Kiel Germany

Grupo de Estudos de Mamíferos Aquáticos do Rio Grande do Sul Torres RS 95560 000 Brazil

Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies University of Tasmania Hobart TAS 7005 Australia

Instituto Australis Imbituba SC 88780 000 Brazil

Instituto de Conservación de Ballenas Ing Maschwitz 1623 Buenos Aires Argentina

Ivanhoe Sea Safaris Gansbaai 7220 South Africa

Laboratório de Ecologia de Mamίferos Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos Sao Leopoldo RS 93022 750 Brazil

Laboratorio de Macroecología Marina Centro de Investigación Científica y Educación Superior de Ensenada Unidad La Paz 23050 La Paz BCS México

Mammal Research Institute Department of Zoology and Entomology University of Pretoria Pretoria 0002 South Africa

Marine Ecology and Telemetry Research and Cascadia Research Collective Seabeck WA 98380

Marine Evolution and Conservation Group Groningen Institute of Evolutionary Life Sciences University of Groningen 9747 AG Groningen The Netherlands

Marine Mammal Institute Oregon State University Newport OR 97365

New Zealand Department of Conservation Te Papa Atawhai Wellington 6011 Aotearoa New Zealand

Núcleo de Gestão Integrada ICMBio Florianópolis Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade Ministério do Meio Ambiente Florianópolis 88053 700 Brazil

Ocean Alliance Gloucester MA 01930

School of Biological Sciences University of Auckland Waipapa Taumata Rau Auckland 1010 Aotearoa New Zealand

School of Biological Sciences University of Utah Salt Lake City UT 84112 0840

School of Earth and Environmental Sciences University of Adelaide Adelaide SA 5064 Australia

School of Natural Sciences Macquarie University Sydney NSW 2000 Australia

South Australian Research and Development Institute Primary Industries and Regions South Australia Adelaide SA 5064 Australia

Stable Isotope Biogeochemistry Laboratory Department of Earth Sciences Durham University Durham DH1 3LE United Kingdom

Unité Mixte de Recherche Entropie French Institute of Research for Sustainable Development Nouméa 98848 New Caledonia

Universidade Estadual do Rio Grande do Sul Osório RS 95520 000 Brazil

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