Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2-2019
Keywords
passive acoustic monitoring, density estimation, pygmy sperm whale, dwarf sperm whale, Gulf of Mexico
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2019.00066
Abstract
Pygmy sperm whales (Kogia breviceps) and dwarf sperm whales (Kogia sima) are deep diving cetaceans that commonly strand along the coast of the southeast US, but that are difficult to study visually at sea because of their elusive behavior. Conventional visual surveys are thought to significantly underestimate the presence of Kogia and they have proven difficult to approach for tracking and tagging. An approach is presented for density estimation of signals presumed to be from Kogia spp. based on passive acoustic monitoring data collected at sites in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) from the period following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill (2010-2013). Both species of Kogia are known to inhabit the GOM, although it is not possible to acoustically separate the two based on available knowledge of their echolocation clicks. An increasing interannual density trend is suggested for animals near the primary zone of impact of the oil spill, and to the southeast of the spill. Densities were estimated based on both counting individual echolocation clicks and counting the presence of groups of animals during one-min time windows. Densities derived from acoustic monitoring at three sites are all substantially higher (4–16 animals/1000 km2) than those that have been derived for Kogia from line transect visual surveys in the same region (0.5 animals/1000 km2). The most likely explanation for the observed discrepancy is that the visual surveys are underestimating Kogia spp. density, due to the assumption of perfect detectability on the survey trackline. We present an alternative approach for density estimation, one that derives echolocation and behavioral parameters based on comparison of modeled and observed sound received levels at sites of varying depth.
Rights Information
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication 1.0 License.
Was this content written or created while at USF?
No
Citation / Publisher Attribution
Frontiers in Marine Science, v. 6, art. 66
Copyright © 2019 Hildebrand, Frasier, Baumann-Pickering, Wiggins, Merkens, Garrison, Soldevilla and McDonald.
Scholar Commons Citation
Hildebrand, John A.; Fraiser, Kaitlin E.; Baumann-Pickering, Simone; Wiggins, Sean M.; Merkens, Karlina P.; Garrison, Lance P.; Soldevilla, Melissa S.; and McDonald, Mark A., "Assessing Seasonality and Density From Passive Acoustic Monitoring of Signals Presumed to be From Pygmy and Dwarf Sperm Whales in the Gulf of Mexico" (2019). C-IMAGE Publications. 2.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/cimage_pubs/2
Comments
Data used in this publication are available for download.
Dataset for: Assessing Seasonality and Density From Passive Acoustic Monitoring of Signals Presumed to be From Pygmy and Dwarf Sperm Whales in the Gulf of Mexico