The behavioural response of migrating humpback whales to a full seismic airgun array

Dunlop, Rebecca A.; Noad, Michael J.; McCauley, Robert D.; Kniest, Eric; Slade, Robert; Paton, David; Cato, Douglas H.

doi:10.1098/rspb.2017.1901

Cited by 30 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…The effect of anthropogenic noise on animals [15,[111][112][113][114]] is a key topic in bioacoustics research. Noise is usually the result of the sound of vehicles and has been shown to have a negative effect on animal foraging [113].…”

Section: Anthropogenic Noisementioning

confidence: 99%

“…In ecology, the automated analysis of animal sounds can be used for individual animal detection [6], species detection [7,8], location of animal detection [9][10][11] and population monitoring [6,12 -14]. In conservation, it is useful when verifying if human activities such as shipping or seismic survey vessels affect wild animal behaviour [15][16][17][18][19]. Vocalizations of some species such as goats (Capra hircus) and horses (Equus caballus) also differ during positive and negative experiences [20 -23].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Automated bioacoustics: methods in ecology and conservation and their potential for animal welfare monitoring

Mcloughlin

Stewart

McElligott

2019

J. R. Soc. Interface.

106

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Vocalizations carry emotional, physiological and individual information. This suggests that they may serve as potentially useful indicators for inferring animal welfare. At the same time, automated methods for analysing and classifying sound have developed rapidly, particularly in the fields of ecology, conservation and sound scene classification. These methods are already used to automatically classify animal vocalizations, for example, in identifying animal species and estimating numbers of individuals. Despite this potential, they have not yet found widespread application in animal welfare monitoring. In this review, we first discuss current trends in sound analysis for ecology, conservation and sound classification. Following this, we detail the vocalizations produced by three of the most important farm livestock species: chickens ( Gallus gallus domesticus ), pigs ( Sus scrofa domesticus ) and cattle ( Bos taurus ). Finally, we describe how these methods can be applied to monitor animal welfare with new potential for developing automated methods for large-scale farming.

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Section: Anthropogenic Noisementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Automated bioacoustics: methods in ecology and conservation and their potential for animal welfare monitoring

Mcloughlin

Stewart

McElligott

2019

J. R. Soc. Interface.

106

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“…The physical presence of the vessel has been shown to reduce bottlenose dolphin [37] and humpback whale [38] foraging activity as well as bottlenose dolphin resting and socializing behaviour [37]. Other studies, carried out on this population of humpback whales at this study site, found that humpback whale groups significantly changed their migration speed and direction to avoid a slowly (4 knots) moving vessel towing (silent) air gun arrays [39,40]. Therefore, this body of work suggests that not only do migrating humpback whales physically avoid vessels, but also change their acoustic and social behaviour when vessels are present.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

The effects of vessel noise on the communication network of humpback whales

Dunlop

2019

R. Soc. open sci.

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Humpback whales rely on acoustic communication to mediate social interactions. The distance to which these social signals propagate from the signaller defines its communication space, and therefore communication network (number of potential receivers). As humpback whales migrate along populated coastlines, they are likely to encounter noise from vessel traffic which will mask their social signals. Since no empirical data exist on baleen whale hearing, the consequences of this are usually assumed, being the modelled reduction in their communication space. Here, the communication space and network of migrating humpback whales was compared in increasing wind-dominated and vessel-dominated noise. Behavioural data on their social interactions were then used to inform these models. In typical wind noise, a signaller's communication space was estimated to extend to 4 km, which agreed with the maximum separation distance between groups that socially interacted. An increase in vessel noise reduced the modelled communication area, along with a significant reduction in group social interactions, probably due to a reduction in their communication network. However, signal masking did not fully explain this change in social behaviour, implying there was also an additional effect of the physical presence of the vessel on signaller and receiver behaviour. Though these observed changes in communication space and social behaviour were likely to be short term and localized, an increase in vessel activity due to tourism and coastal population growth may cause more sustained changes along the humpback whale migration paths.

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“…Humpback whales off the Australian east coast exhibited great variation in behavioral responses to seismic survey vessels with the airguns turned off. While no behavioral change was seen in some trials, others revealed a decrease in dive duration, travel speed, and the number of breaches (Dunlop et al, 2015(Dunlop et al, , 2016(Dunlop et al, , 2017a(Dunlop et al, ,b, 2018. Most humpback whales did not respond to sonar vessels with the sonar turned off Wensveen et al, 2017).…”

Section: Mysticetesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effects of Ship Noise on Marine Mammals—A Review

et al. 2019

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The number of marine watercraft is on the rise-from private boats in coastal areas to commercial ships crossing oceans. A concomitant increase in underwater noise has been reported in several regions around the globe. Given the important role sound plays in the life functions of marine mammals, research on the potential effects of vessel noise has grown-in particular since the year 2000. We provide an overview of this literature, showing that studies have been patchy in terms of their coverage of species, habitats, vessel types, and types of impact investigated. The documented effects include behavioral and acoustic responses, auditory masking, and stress. We identify knowledge gaps: There appears a bias to more easily accessible species (i.e., bottlenose dolphins and humpback whales), whereas there is a paucity of literature addressing vessel noise impacts on river dolphins, even though some of these species experience chronic noise from boats. Similarly, little is known about the potential effects of ship noise on pelagic and deep-diving marine mammals, even though ship noise is focused in a downward direction, reaching great depth at little acoustic loss and potentially coupling into sound propagation channels in which sound may transmit over long ranges. We explain the fundamental concepts involved in the generation and propagation of vessel noise and point out common problems with both physics and biology: Recordings of ship noise might be affected by unidentified artifacts, and noise exposure can be both under-and over-estimated by tens of decibel if the local sound propagation conditions are not considered. The lack of anthropogenic (e.g., different vessel types), environmental (e.g., different sea states or presence/absence of prey), and biological (e.g., different demographics) controls is a common problem, as is a lack of understanding what constitutes the 'normal' range of behaviors. Last but not least, the biological significance of observed responses is mostly unknown. Moving forward, standards on study design, data analysis, and reporting are badly needed so that results are comparable (across space and time) and so that data can be synthesized to address the grand unknowns: the role of context and the consequences of chronic exposures.

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The behavioural response of migrating humpback whales to a full seismic airgun array

Cited by 30 publications

References 41 publications

Automated bioacoustics: methods in ecology and conservation and their potential for animal welfare monitoring

Automated bioacoustics: methods in ecology and conservation and their potential for animal welfare monitoring

The effects of vessel noise on the communication network of humpback whales

The Effects of Ship Noise on Marine Mammals—A Review

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