An Ocean Observing System for Large-Scale Monitoring and Mapping of Noise Throughout the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary

Clark, Christopher W.; Ellison, William T.; Hatch, Leila T.; Merrick, Richard L.; Parijs, Sofie M. Van; Wiley, David N.

doi:10.21236/ada555134

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…The acoustic detection range for the monitored species is much lower than the spatial scales at which we observed significant associations between aerial survey and near real‐time acoustic occurrence estimates. Right whales are estimated to have detection ranges of up to 9 km in shallow continental shelf waters (Clark, Brown, & Corkeron, ), and humpback whales, producing calls at similar frequencies and source levels as right whales (Au et al, ; Clark et al, ; Thompson, Cummings, & Ha, ), likely have a similar detection range. Sei whales produce lower frequency calls at louder source levels (Baumgartner et al, ; Newhall, Lin, Lynch, Baumgartner, & Gawarkiewicz, ), and Baumgartner et al () estimated an acoustic detection range 10–15 km.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Persistent near real‐time passive acoustic monitoring for baleen whales from a moored buoy: System description and evaluation

et al. 2019

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Managing interactions between human activities and marine mammals often relies on an understanding of the real‐time distribution or occurrence of animals. Visual surveys typically cannot provide persistent monitoring because of expense and weather limitations, and while passive acoustic recorders can monitor continuously, the data they collect are often not accessible until the recorder is recovered. We have developed a moored passive acoustic monitoring system that provides near real‐time occurrence estimates for humpback, sei, fin and North Atlantic right whales from a single site for a year, and makes those occurrence estimates available via a publicly accessible website, email and text messages, a smartphone/tablet app and the U.S. Coast Guard's maritime domain awareness software. We evaluated this system using a buoy deployed off the coast of Massachusetts during 2015–2016 and redeployed again during 2016–2017. Near real‐time estimates of whale occurrence were compared to simultaneously collected archived audio as well as whale sightings collected near the buoy by aerial surveys. False detection rates for right, humpback and sei whales were 0% and nearly 0% for fin whales, whereas missed detection rates at daily time scales were modest (12%–42%). Missed detections were significantly associated with low calling rates for all species. We observed strong associations between right whale visual sightings and near real‐time acoustic detections over a monitoring range 30–40 km and temporal scales of 24–48 hr, suggesting that silent animals were not especially problematic for estimating occurrence of right whales in the study area. There was no association between acoustic detections and visual sightings of humpback whales. The moored buoy has been used to reduce the risk of ship strikes for right whales in a U.S. Coast Guard gunnery range, and can be applied to other mitigation applications.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Persistent near real‐time passive acoustic monitoring for baleen whales from a moored buoy: System description and evaluation

et al. 2019

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“…Some calls were noted at greater depths, including extremes down to ~120 m (Parks et al 2011). The NARW up-call source level (SL) was estimated at 165 ± 3.5 (SD, n = 353) dB re 1 µPa rms @ 1 m (Clark et al 2011).…”

Section: Narw Up-callmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The detection ranges at the PAM stations where NARW up-calls were recorded were estimated from the call source level (SL), transmission loss (TL) and the probability distribution function of the measured noise level (NL) in the up-call band at the 3-dimensional locations of the PAM recorders during a complete annual cycle. The NARW up-call SL was set to 165 dB re 1 µPa rms @ 1 m (Clark et al 2011, SD = 3.5 dB, n = 353). The calling depth was set to 15 m following D-tag measurements showing that most calls are produced in the upper water column (Parks et al 2011).…”

Section: Detection Ranges and Areasmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The NARW contact call is a relatively faint low-frequency call (~165 dB re 1 µPa @ 1 m; Clark et al 2011) compared to the strong infrasounds of fin and blue whales (~190 dB re 1 µPa @ 1 m; Širovi et al 2007). The peak frequency is below 200 Hz (Parks & Tyack 2005, Clark et al 2011, which is within the frequency band affected by significant low-frequency ship noise (Simard et al 2016). The probability of detecting NARW contact calls above background ambient noise is therefore reduced in areas exposed to major shipping traffic, as evidenced by our modelling of the detection areas of the PAM stations.…”

Section: Narw Space Patternmentioning

confidence: 99%

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North Atlantic right whale shift to the Gulf of St. Lawrence in 2015, revealed by long-term passive acoustics

Simard¹,

Roy²,

Giard³

et al. 2019

Endang. Species. Res.

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This paper contributes to documenting a change in the distribution of North Atlantic right whales Eubalaena glacialis (NARWs) that occurred in the 2010s, when the whales largely abandoned their traditional summering grounds in the Gulf of Maine/Bay of Fundy/Scotian shelf. Data from a year-round passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) network in the Gulf of St. Lawrence were exploited to build the time series of NARW incursions into this inland sea of the Northwest Atlantic, from June 2010 to November 2018. NARWs visited the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence every year from June to January, until ice freeze-up. The earliest detections were made at the end of April and the latest in mid-January. Call occurrence peaked between August and the end of October. NARW contact calls were not detected at the most upstream station at Les Escoumins, in the Lower St. Lawrence estuary, or at the northeastern connection of Belle Isle Strait with the Atlantic, which was monitored from November 2010 to November 2011. The mean daily occurrence of NARWs in the feeding grounds off Gaspé quadrupled after 2015 compared to 2011−2014. Long-term continuous PAM data provided invaluable information to document this marine mammal distribution shift.

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Optimizing passive acoustic systems for marine mammal detection and localization: Application to real-time monitoring north Atlantic right whales in Gulf of St. Lawrence

et al. 2021

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An Ocean Observing System for Large-Scale Monitoring and Mapping of Noise Throughout the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary

Cited by 3 publications

References 2 publications

Persistent near real‐time passive acoustic monitoring for baleen whales from a moored buoy: System description and evaluation

Persistent near real‐time passive acoustic monitoring for baleen whales from a moored buoy: System description and evaluation

North Atlantic right whale shift to the Gulf of St. Lawrence in 2015, revealed by long-term passive acoustics

Optimizing passive acoustic systems for marine mammal detection and localization: Application to real-time monitoring north Atlantic right whales in Gulf of St. Lawrence

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