Seasonal acoustic occurrence of blue, fin, and North Atlantic right whales in the New York Bight

Abstract

1. The New York Bight is an extremely busy maritime region, with extensive shipping traffic and commercial fishing activity. It is part of the migratory ranges of a number of cetacean species, and includes threats from ship strikes, noise exposure, and line entanglements. Previous cetacean surveys of the Bight offer limited information on cetacean occurrence and distribution in the region, having been restricted to visual sightings with limited temporal coverage. A passiveacoustic monitoring survey was conducted over a 258-day period to broaden understanding of the seasonal occurrences of blue (Balaenoptera musculus), fin (Balaenoptera physalus), and North Atlantic right (Eubalaena glacialis) whales during late summer, autumn, winter, and early spring. Stationary acoustic recorders were positioned near the entrance to New York Harbour and as a linear transect extending from Long Island to the continental shelf edge.3. Blue, fin, and right whales were detected on 11%, 100%, and 16% of the survey days, respectively. Blue whales were detected offshore during January, February, and March. Fin whales were detected offshore every day, and less often near-shore. Right whales occurred sporadically during every month, but were most often detected at near-shore recorders between late February and mid-May.4. Based on the acoustic data alone, it is unclear exactly how these species are using this habitat, although it is clear that they occur in the area longer than was previously thought. Thus, management practices should incorporate this extended seasonal presence to mitigate any effects on the whales from shipping and fishing activities.

Exploring movement patterns and changing distributions of baleen whales in the western North Atlantic using a decade of passive acoustic data

“…Fin whales were present nearly year-round from Virginia (mid-Atlantic; region 8) to eastern Greenland (region 2). These findings correspond with regional studies where fin whales were detected on 99%-100% of recording days in Massachusetts Bay (region 5) and the New York Bight (region 7; Morano et al, 2012;Muirhead et al, 2018). Moreover, these data reflect previous findings of year-round fin whale presence, and support suggestions that, as in other baleen whales, not all fin whales migrate.…”

“…showed that the regions south of New England (region 7) and east of Greenland (region 2) were also important areas for humpback whales, similar to NARWs (Davis et al, 2017;Mellinger et al, 2011;Muirhead et al, 2018).…”

“…A global review of fin whale sightings and acoustic data showed year‐round presence throughout most of the US EEZ, commonly occurring in the Gulf of Maine and in Canadian waters off Nova Scotia (Edwards et al., 2015; Hain, Ratnaswamy, Kenney, & Winn, 1992). Acoustic records revealed the year‐round presence of fin whales in Massachusetts Bay and the New York Bight (Morano et al., 2012; Muirhead et al., 2018), as well as occurrence from September through June in offshore waters surrounding Bermuda and the Mid‐Atlantic Ridge (Clark & Gagnon, 2004; Nieukirk et al., 2012; Nieukirk, Stafford, Mellinger, Dziak, & Fox, 2004; Watkins, Tyack, Moore, & Bird, 1987). While New England waters provide important feeding grounds, mating and calving grounds remain unknown.…”

Ecoacoustics: A Quantitative Approach to Investigate the Ecological Role of Environmental Sounds

“…Passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) is an ecosystem-based approach to assess long-term changes in community abundance, richness, and diversity primarily based on the aural identification of species [18,101,102]. This methodology is very popular in bioacoustic studies to monitor the abundance, distribution, and reproductive cycles of focus species (e.g., dolphins [103], koalas [104], whales [105], raptors [106], and snapping shrimp [107], or invasive species [108,109]) and landscape [110], to name some examples from numerous papers published in the last ten years.…”

Phenological changes in North Atlantic right whale habitat use in Massachusetts Bay

“…In the one study directly comparing PAM and aerial surveys, PAM was more reliable for detecting right whale presence in CCB, particularly at low whale densities (Clark, Brown, & Corkeron, ). Previous fixed‐location PAM studies have revealed the presence of right whales at times of year and/or places previously undocumented by recent visual observations (Bort, Parijs, Stevick, Summers, & Todd, ; Hodge, Muirhead, Morano, Clark, & Rice, ; Mellinger, Nieukirk, et al, ; Morano et al, ; Muirhead et al, ; Mussoline et al, ; Salisbury, Clark, & Rice, ; Whitt, Dudzinski, & Laliberté, ). These studies, most of which were limited to 1 or 2 years, have demonstrated the value of PAM methods for filling in important gaps in our understanding of right whale occurrence patterns in space and time.…”