Humpback whale use of areas off eastern Canada is poorly understood, a knowledge gap that could impact future conservation efforts. We describe the acoustic occurrence of humpback whales in and around the Gully Marine Protected Area (MPA), an eastern Scotian Shelf submarine canyon. Near-continuous acoustic recordings sampling at 16 kHz were collected from the MPA and nearby slope areas from October 2012 to September 2014 using near-bottom recorders. In an offshore region where humpbacks were thought to be rare, we observed calls from October to June with a peak in song and nonsong calls in December and January. This suggests that some individuals occur in Canadian waters in winter and the Gully region may be a North Atlantic humpback whale migratory corridor. Calls were predominantly songs indicating potential mating activities. Song and nonsong calls occurred more at sunset and during hours of darkness than during daylight. This study improves our understanding of the seasonal occurrence of humpback whales on the Scotian Slope and, more specifically, their use of an offshore protected area.

Humpback whale songs have been described worldwide and studies exploring non-song vocal behavior continue to expand; however, studies on the transition periods when whales shift to and from the seasonal behavioral state of singing are lacking and may be potentially informative regarding the proximal factors controlling the onset and offset of humpback whale male singing. Acoustic recorders collected data off eastern Canada continuously from the Bay of Fundy in the fall of 2015 and near-continuously off northeast Nova Scotia in the spring of 2016. Humpback whale acoustic occurrence and behavior were identified by systematically reviewing a subset of acoustic recordings for presence before analyzing the highest quality recordings for behavior. The onset of singing in the fall was gradual over a period of about three weeks with an intermediate form, termed “song fragment,” occurring prior to full songs. In comparison, singing in the spring seemed to end abruptly with few song fragments. Song fragments could be produced by juveniles learning to sing for the first time or mature males preparing for breeding activities prior to migrating to southern breeding grounds. The authors propose an alternative hypothesis that the timing and manner of transitions could be driven by physiological processes similar to those documented in songbirds.

ABSTRACT. The expansion of hydrocarbon exploration in northwest Greenland has made it increasingly important to understand the occurrence of marine mammals in the region. We describe the seasonal occurrence of marine mammals and the spatial distribution of their calls in Baffin Bay and Melville Bay. Four Autonomous Multichannel Acoustic Recorders (AMARs) were deployed during summer 2012 (late July to early October), five recorders during September 2013, and two recorders from late September 2013 to early September 2014. The call presence of several species was analyzed using automatic call detection and manual verification analysis methods. A novel approach to discern narwhal (Monodon monoceros) clicks from beluga (Delphinapterus leucas) clicks was implemented during the verification process. Narwhal calls were detected in spring and fall, showing a south-to-north migration pattern in spring and a north-to-south migration pattern in fall. Few beluga whales were detected during fall 2013 and spring 2014. Bearded seal (Erignathus barbatus) calls were detected mainly during spring (mating period). A small number of bowhead whale calls (Balaena mysticetus) were detected during fall 2013 and spring and summer 2014. For the first time at this latitude in Baffin Bay, long-finned pilot whales (Globicephala melas) and sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) were detected during summer and fall. Our results suggest that the presence of marine mammals in Baffin Bay and Melville Bay is governed mainly by the annual cycle of sea ice formation and decay.

Little is known of the spatio-temporal occurrence of beaked whales off western Ireland, limiting the ability of Regulators to implement appropriate management and conservation measures. To address this knowledge gap, static acoustic monitoring was carried out using eight fixed bottom-mounted autonomous acoustic recorders: four from May to December 2015 on Ireland’s northern slope and four from March to November 2016 on the western and southern slopes. Recorders ran for 205 to 230 days, resulting in 4.09 TB of data sampled at 250 kHz which could capture beaked whale acoustic signals. Zero-crossing-based automated detectors identified beaked whale clicks. A sample of detections was manually validated to evaluate and optimize detector performance. Analysis confirmed the occurrence of Sowerby’s and Cuvier’s beaked whales and Northern bottlenose whales. Northern bottlenose whale clicks occurred in late summer and autumn, but were too few to allow further analysis. Cuvier’s and Sowerby’s clicks occurred at all stations throughout the monitoring period. There was a significant effect of month and station (latitude) on the mean daily number of click detections for both species. Cuvier’s clicks were more abundant at lower latitudes while Sowerby’s were greater at higher latitudes, particularly in the spring, suggesting a spatial segregation between species, possibly driven by prey preference. Cuvier’s occurrence increased in late autumn 2015 off northwest Porcupine Bank, a region of higher relative occurrence for each species. Seismic airgun shots, with daily sound exposure levels as high as 175 dB re 1 μPa2·s, did not appear to impact the mean daily number of Cuvier’s or Sowerby’s beaked whale click detections. This work provides insight into the significance of Irish waters for beaked whales and highlights the importance of using acoustics for beaked whale monitoring.

Marine user–environment conflicts can have consequences for ecosystems that negatively affect humans. Strategies and tools are required to identify, predict, and mitigate the conflicts that arise between marine anthropogenic activities and wildlife. Estimating individual-, population-, and species-scale distributions of marine animals has historically been challenging, but electronic tagging and tracking technologies (i.e., biotelemetry and biologging) and analytical tools are emerging that can assist marine spatial planning (MSP) efforts by documenting animal interactions with marine infrastructure (e.g., tidal turbines, oil rigs), identifying critical habitat for animals (e.g., migratory corridors, foraging hotspots, reproductive or nursery zones), or delineating distributions for fisheries exploitation. MSP that excludes consideration of animals is suboptimal, and animal space-use estimates can contribute to efficient and responsible exploitation of marine resources that harmonize economic and ecological objectives of MSP. This review considers the application of animal tracking to MSP objectives, presents case studies of successful integration, and provides a look forward to the ways in which MSP will benefit from further integration of animal tracking data.