Data from: Behavioral responses of individual blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus) to mid-frequency military sonar ...

• Main Authors: Southall, Brandon L., DeRuiter, Stacy L., Friedlaender, Ari, Stimpert, Alison K., Goldbogen, Jeremy A., Hazen, Elliott, Casey, Caroline, Fregosi, Selene, Cade, David E., Allen, Ann N., Harris, Catriona M., Schorr, Greg, Moretti, David, Guan, Shane, Calambokidis, John
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2019
• Subjects: blue whale; context; behavioral response; Balaenoptera musculus; Sonar; marine mammal; Blue whale
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.d0mv3dh; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.d0mv3dh

This study measured the degree of behavioral responses in blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus) to controlled noise exposure off the southern California coast. High-resolution movement and passive acoustic data were obtained from non-invasive archival tags (n=42) while surface positions were obtained with visual focal follows. Controlled exposure experiments (CEEs) were used to obtain direct behavioral measurements before, during, and after simulated and operational military mid-frequency active sonar (MFAS), pseudorandom noise (PRN), and controls (no noise exposure). For a subset of deep-foraging animals (n=21), active acoustic measurements of prey were obtained and used as contextual covariates in response analyses. To investigate potential behavioral changes within individuals as a function of controlled noise exposure conditions, two parallel analyses of time-series data for selected behavioral parameters (e.g., diving, horizontal movement, feeding) were conducted. This included expert scoring of responses ... : Blue whale individual CEE results_JEB for DryadExpert scoring and Mahalanobis distance figures as well as metadata syntheses of results are given for all 42 blue whale subjects ...