Pinniped Sounds in the Polar Oceans

Observations on mechanisms and phenomena underlying underwater and surface vocalisations of grey seals

“…Potential social functions of the emitted acoustic signals did not fall within the scope of the present study, and were not considered as a classification factor. Such an approach is different than the ones presented in other studies, and thus the number of indicated vocalisation types is also different, compared to, for instance, Asselin et al (1993);Miksis-Olds et al (2016). Asselin et al described six different underwater tonal vocalisations with mean fundamental frequencies ranging from 200 to 400 Hz and average duration times between 1,2 and 2,74 s (Asselin et al (1993)).…”

“…The study aimed at relating the vocalisations with changes in animal behaviour. Another broad overview of vocal repertoire of various pinnipeds was presented by Miksis-Olds et al (2016). The study specifies the number of different aquatic call types of grey seals as ten (referring to the state of knowledge until 2000).…”

Classification of underwater vocalizations of wild spotted seals (Phoca largha) in Liaodong Bay, China

“…Passive acoustics methods have been successfully applied to record the underwater sounds of different seal species, including harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) (Hanggi and Schusterman, 1994;Van Parijs et al, 2000;Van Parijs et al, 2003;Nikolich et al, 2016), ringed seals (Phoca hispida) (Stirling, 1973;Cummings et al, 1984), leopard seals, (Hydrurga leptonyx) (Rogers et al, 1996;Rogers and Cato, 2002), bearded seals (Erignathus barbatus) (Risch et al, 2007), harp seals (Phoca groenlandica) (Watkins and Schevill, 1979;Terhune and Ronald, 1986), and Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddelli) (Thomas and Kuechle, 1982;Rouget et al, 2007;Doiron et al, 2012). Results from previous research have indicated that most species become more vocal underwater during the breeding season (Watkins and Schevill, 1979;Miksis-Olds et al, 2016). There is currently no published information available on wild spotted seal underwater vocalizations, however, there are two previous reports of underwater sounds of captive spotted seals from the Bering Sea (Beier and Wartzok, 1979;Gailey-Phipps, 1984).…”