Time averaged narrow-band noise near 27 Hz produced by vocalizations of many distant Antarctic blue whales intensifies seasonally from early February to late October in the ocean off Australia's South West. Spectral characteristics of long term patterns in this noise band were analyzed using ambient noise data collected at the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty hydroacoustic station off Cape Leeuwin, Western Australia over 2002-2010. Within 7 day averaged noise spectra derived from 4096-point FFT (∼0.06 Hz frequency resolution), the -3-dB width of the spectral peak from the upper tone of Antarctic blue whale vocalization was about 0.5 Hz. The spectral frequency peak of this tonal call was regularly but not gradually decreasing over the 9 years of observation from ∼27.7 Hz in 2002 to ∼26.6 Hz in 2010. The average frequency peak steadily decreased at a greater rate within a season at 0.4-0.5 Hz/season but then in the next year recovered to approximately the mean value of the previous season. A regression analysis showed that the interannual decrease rate of the peak frequency of the upper tonal call was 0.135 ± 0.003 Hz/year over 2002-2010 (R(2) ≈ 0.99). Possible causes of such a decline in the whale vocalization frequency are considered.

Vocal characteristics of pygmy blue whales of the eastern Indian Ocean population were analyzed using data from a hydroacoustic station deployed off Cape Leeuwin in Western Australia as part of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty monitoring network, from two acoustic observatories of the Australian Integrated Marine Observing System, and from individual sea noise loggers deployed in the Perth Canyon. These data have been collected from 2002 to 2010, inclusively. It is shown that the themes of pygmy blue whale songs consist of ether three or two repeating tonal sounds with harmonics. The most intense sound of the tonal theme was estimated to correspond to a source level of 179 ± 2 dB re 1 μPa at 1 m measured for 120 calls from seven different animals. Short-duration calls of impulsive downswept sound from pygmy blue whales were weaker with the source level estimated to vary between 168 to 176 dB. A gradual decrease in the call frequency with a mean rate estimated to be 0.35 ± 0.3 Hz/year was observed over nine years in the frequency of the third harmonic of tonal sound 2 in the whale song theme, which corresponds to a negative trend of about 0.12 Hz/year in the call fundamental frequency.

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A 9-yr dataset of continuous sea noise recording made at the Cape Leeuwin station of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty hydroacoustic network in 2002-2010 was processed to detect calls from pygmy blue whales and to analyze diurnal, seasonal, and interannual variations in their vocal activity. Because the conventional spectrogram correlation method for recognizing whale calls in sea noise resulted in a too high false detection rate, alternative algorithms were tested and the most robust one applied to the multi-year dataset. The detection method was based on multivariate classification using two spectrogram features of transients in sea noise and Fisher's linear discriminant, which provided a misclassification rate of approximately 1% for missed and false detections at moderate sensitivity settings. An analysis of the detection results revealed a consistent seasonal pattern in the whale presence and considerable interannual changes with a steady increase in the number of calls detected in 2002-2006. An apparent diurnal pattern of whales' vocal activity was also observed. The acoustic detection range for pygmy blue whales was estimated to vary from about 50 km to nearly 200 km from the Cape Leeuwin station, depending on the ambient noise level, source level, and azimuth to a vocalizing whale.

The diversity, intensity, and periodicity of fish sounds can provide a wealth of information on spatial and temporal distribution of soniferous fish and, on occasion, which environmental factors these choruses are driven by. Such information can help predict species presence and understand their movement patterns in the long term. At three sites in Darwin Harbour, Australia, sea-noise loggers on the harbour floor recorded ambient noise over a 2-year period. Many fish calls and nine different chorus types were detected over 50 Hz to 3 kHz. Source species were speculated for four of the choruses and source levels, a precursor to passive acoustic abundance estimates, were identified for two of these. Other calls displayed similarities to choruses detected elsewhere in Australia. All choruses displayed diel cycles with semi-lunar patterns present for three of the chorus types. Time of sunset and temperature were also significantly related to the presence of the most predominant chorus and while not statistically significant, height of high tide and salinity also appeared related. A lack of frequency and temporal partitioning in calling across the choruses in hours of darkness (after sunset) illustrates the complexity of monitoring communities of different vocal species. The study has outlined some of the patterns biological sounds exhibit, which has significant implications for sampling strategies when using soundscapes for temporal and spatial predictive modelling.