Underwater Sounds from the Blue Whale, <i>Balaenoptera musculus</i>

Cummings, William C.; Thompson, P. O.

doi:10.1121/1.1912752

Cited by 158 publications

(167 citation statements)

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“…Source levels appear to increase with body size across cetacean species (Patterson & Hamilton 1967;Cummings & Thompson 1971;Thode et al 2000a;Cummings & Holliday 1985;Schevill & Watkins 1972;Cummings et al 1968;Dawbin & Cato 1992). …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diversity in sound pressure levels and estimated active space of resident killer whale vocalizations

2006

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Please use second address for correspondence. pulsed calls and 24 whistles produced by free-ranging resident killer whales by triangulating the angles-of-arrival of sounds on two beamforming arrays towed in series. Levels in the 1-20 kHz band ranged from 131-168 dB re 1μPa @1m, with differences in the means of different sound classes (whistles: 140.2 ± 4.1 dB; variable calls: 146.6 ± 6.6 dB; stereotyped calls: 152.6 ± 5.9 dB), and among stereotyped call types. Repertoire diversity carried through to estimates of active space, with "long-range" stereotyped calls all containing overlapping, independently-modulated high-frequency components (mean estimated active space of 10-16km in sea state zero) and "short-range" sounds (5-9 km) included all stereotyped calls without a high-frequency component, whistles, and variable calls. Short-range sounds are reported to be more common during social and resting behaviors, while long-range stereotyped calls predominate in dispersed travel and foraging behaviors. These results suggest that variability in sound pressure levels may reflect diverse social and ecological functions of the acoustic repertoire of killer whales.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diversity in sound pressure levels and estimated active space of resident killer whale vocalizations

2006

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“…The low SNRs for the Southern Ocean blue whale songs recorded in this study suggests these animals were travelling at or beyond the edge of the continental shelf. The temporal patterns in blue whale song were first related to dive durations by Cummings & Thompson (1971) New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 2006, Vol. 40 et al in press).…”

Section: Blue Whale Songmentioning

confidence: 99%

An acoustic survey of baleen whales off Great Barrier Island, New Zealand

McDonald¹

2006

New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research

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Acoustic recordings of baleen whale calls were analysed for the calendar year 1997 from a pair of fixed hydrophones located 5 km east of Great Barrier Island, New Zealand. The primary goal of the study was to examine blue whale seasonally and song type as part of a larger worldwide study. Calls were recorded from blue whales of two song types, fin whales, humpback whales, Bryde's whales, and of two unknown call types, each probably produced by Bryde's whales. The peak of calling density was May through September for the blue, fin, and humpback whales. The known Bryde's whale calls occurred year-round and the probable Bryde's whale calls occurred from May through December. Blue whale songs of a type so far known only from New Zealand waters were detected within 2 km of shore and occurred four times from June to December, whereas the Southern Ocean blue whale songs were detected only further offshore in mid-winter. Bryde's whale calls were the most abundant type and often occurred near the hydrophones. These data provide a baseline from which future recordings from the same hydrophones could be compared.

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“…Each 'Z' call, named for its characteristic shape when viewed as a spectrogram, was composed of 3 units that we labelled A, B, and C (Fig. 1) following the convention of Cummings & Thompson (1971). The 26 Hz tone was essentially the same as Unit A, but without subsequent detection of Units B or C. Frequency-modulated calls > 2 s in duration were subjectively classified as 'D' calls of blue whales, depending on the shape of the call (i.e.…”

Section: At-sea Analysis Of Callsmentioning

confidence: 99%