Passive Acoustic Monitoring Reveals Spatio-Temporal Distributions of Antarctic and Pygmy Blue Whales Around Central New Zealand

Effective management of wild animal populations relies on an understanding of their spatio-temporal distributions. Passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) is a non-invasive method to investigate the distribution of free-ranging species that reliably produce sound. Critically endangered Antarctic blue whal...

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Published in:Frontiers in Marine Science
Main Authors: Warren, Victoria E., Širović, Ana, McPherson, Craig, Goetz, Kimberly T., Radford, Craig A., Constantine, Rochelle
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:unknown
Published: Frontiers Media SA 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.575257
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2020.575257/full
id crfrontiers:10.3389/fmars.2020.575257
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spelling crfrontiers:10.3389/fmars.2020.575257 2024-03-31T07:49:20+00:00 Passive Acoustic Monitoring Reveals Spatio-Temporal Distributions of Antarctic and Pygmy Blue Whales Around Central New Zealand Warren, Victoria E. Širović, Ana McPherson, Craig Goetz, Kimberly T. Radford, Craig A. Constantine, Rochelle 2021 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.575257 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2020.575257/full unknown Frontiers Media SA https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Frontiers in Marine Science volume 7 ISSN 2296-7745 Ocean Engineering Water Science and Technology Aquatic Science Global and Planetary Change Oceanography journal-article 2021 crfrontiers https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.575257 2024-03-05T00:06:30Z Effective management of wild animal populations relies on an understanding of their spatio-temporal distributions. Passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) is a non-invasive method to investigate the distribution of free-ranging species that reliably produce sound. Critically endangered Antarctic blue whales ( Balaenoptera musculus intermedia ) (ABWs) co-occur with pygmy blue whales ( B. m. brevicauda ) (PBWs) around New Zealand. Nationally, both are listed as “data deficient” due to difficulties in access and visual sub-species identification. PAM was used to investigate the distributions of blue whales via sub-species specific song detections in central New Zealand. Propagation models, incorporating ambient noise data, enabled the comparison of detections among recording locations in different marine environments. ABW detections peaked during austral winter and spring, indicating that New Zealand, and the South Taranaki Bight (STB) in particular, is a migratory corridor for ABWs. Some ABW calls were also detected during the breeding season (September and October). PBW calls were highly concentrated in the STB, particularly between March and May, suggesting that an aggregation of PBWs may occur here. Therefore, the STB is of great importance for both sub-species of blue whale. PBW detections were absent from the STB during parts of austral spring, but PBWs were detected at east coast locations during this time. Detection area models were valuable when interpreting and comparing detections among recording locations. The results provide sub-species specific information required for management of critically endangered ABWs and highlight the relative importance of central New Zealand for both sub-species of blue whale. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Balaenoptera musculus Blue whale Frontiers (Publisher) Antarctic Austral New Zealand Frontiers in Marine Science 7
institution Open Polar
collection Frontiers (Publisher)
op_collection_id crfrontiers
language unknown
topic Ocean Engineering
Water Science and Technology
Aquatic Science
Global and Planetary Change
Oceanography
spellingShingle Ocean Engineering
Water Science and Technology
Aquatic Science
Global and Planetary Change
Oceanography
Warren, Victoria E.
Širović, Ana
McPherson, Craig
Goetz, Kimberly T.
Radford, Craig A.
Constantine, Rochelle
Passive Acoustic Monitoring Reveals Spatio-Temporal Distributions of Antarctic and Pygmy Blue Whales Around Central New Zealand
topic_facet Ocean Engineering
Water Science and Technology
Aquatic Science
Global and Planetary Change
Oceanography
description Effective management of wild animal populations relies on an understanding of their spatio-temporal distributions. Passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) is a non-invasive method to investigate the distribution of free-ranging species that reliably produce sound. Critically endangered Antarctic blue whales ( Balaenoptera musculus intermedia ) (ABWs) co-occur with pygmy blue whales ( B. m. brevicauda ) (PBWs) around New Zealand. Nationally, both are listed as “data deficient” due to difficulties in access and visual sub-species identification. PAM was used to investigate the distributions of blue whales via sub-species specific song detections in central New Zealand. Propagation models, incorporating ambient noise data, enabled the comparison of detections among recording locations in different marine environments. ABW detections peaked during austral winter and spring, indicating that New Zealand, and the South Taranaki Bight (STB) in particular, is a migratory corridor for ABWs. Some ABW calls were also detected during the breeding season (September and October). PBW calls were highly concentrated in the STB, particularly between March and May, suggesting that an aggregation of PBWs may occur here. Therefore, the STB is of great importance for both sub-species of blue whale. PBW detections were absent from the STB during parts of austral spring, but PBWs were detected at east coast locations during this time. Detection area models were valuable when interpreting and comparing detections among recording locations. The results provide sub-species specific information required for management of critically endangered ABWs and highlight the relative importance of central New Zealand for both sub-species of blue whale.
format Article in Journal/Newspaper
author Warren, Victoria E.
Širović, Ana
McPherson, Craig
Goetz, Kimberly T.
Radford, Craig A.
Constantine, Rochelle
author_facet Warren, Victoria E.
Širović, Ana
McPherson, Craig
Goetz, Kimberly T.
Radford, Craig A.
Constantine, Rochelle
author_sort Warren, Victoria E.
title Passive Acoustic Monitoring Reveals Spatio-Temporal Distributions of Antarctic and Pygmy Blue Whales Around Central New Zealand
title_short Passive Acoustic Monitoring Reveals Spatio-Temporal Distributions of Antarctic and Pygmy Blue Whales Around Central New Zealand
title_full Passive Acoustic Monitoring Reveals Spatio-Temporal Distributions of Antarctic and Pygmy Blue Whales Around Central New Zealand
title_fullStr Passive Acoustic Monitoring Reveals Spatio-Temporal Distributions of Antarctic and Pygmy Blue Whales Around Central New Zealand
title_full_unstemmed Passive Acoustic Monitoring Reveals Spatio-Temporal Distributions of Antarctic and Pygmy Blue Whales Around Central New Zealand
title_sort passive acoustic monitoring reveals spatio-temporal distributions of antarctic and pygmy blue whales around central new zealand
publisher Frontiers Media SA
publishDate 2021
url http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.575257
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2020.575257/full
geographic Antarctic
Austral
New Zealand
geographic_facet Antarctic
Austral
New Zealand
genre Antarc*
Antarctic
Balaenoptera musculus
Blue whale
genre_facet Antarc*
Antarctic
Balaenoptera musculus
Blue whale
op_source Frontiers in Marine Science
volume 7
ISSN 2296-7745
op_rights https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
op_doi https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.575257
container_title Frontiers in Marine Science
container_volume 7
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