Polar Biol DOI 10.1007/s00300-012-1276-2 ORIGINAL PAPER Monitoring white whales (Delphinapterus leucas) with echolocation loggers

• Main Authors: Manuel Castellote, Ruth H. Leeney, Rauno Lauhakangas, Kit M. Kovacs, William Lucey, Vera Krasnova, Christian Lydersen, Kathleen M. Stafford, Roman Belikov, M. Castellote, Parques Reunidos, Valencia S. A. L’oceanogràfic, R. H. Leeney
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Arctic; Climate change; Delphinapterus leucas
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.297.4132; http://alaskafisheries.noaa.gov/protectedresources/whales/beluga/yakutat/echolocationlog_castellote_etal1112.pdf

Abstract Monitoring programmes for white whales (Delphinapterus leucas) have been called for repeatedly in recent years because this species is likely to be negatively impacted by climate change, but also because such a broadly dispersed, high trophic feeder can serve as an effective ecosystem sentinel. Arctic ecosystems are difficult to monitor because of the extensive winter ice coverage and extreme environmental conditions in addition to low human population densities. However, passive acoustic monitoring has proved to be a reliable method to remotely Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00300-012-1276-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.