Blue Whale Behavioral Response Study & Field Testing of the New Bioacoustic Probe

• Main Authors: Oleson, Erin M., Calambokidis, John, Hildebrand, John A.
• Other Authors: NATIONAL MARINE FISHERIES SERVICE HONOLULU HI
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: Biological Oceanography; Physical and Dynamic Oceanography; Acoustic Detection and Detectors; Acoustics; *BIOACOUSTICS; *WHALES; FIELD TESTS; AQUATIC ANIMALS; SHIP NOISE; MAMMALS; UNDERWATER ACOUSTICS; AIS(ACOUSTIC IDENTIFICATION SYSTEMS); BLUE WHALES; Lanes; Scripps; baleen whales; Blue whale
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA531214; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA531214

Specific studies on the impact of ship noise and have not been widely conducted and little progress has been made toward an understanding of its impact (Southall 2005). Similar data gaps exist for the impact of Navy sonars on baleen whales. The PCAD model (NRC 2005) for assessing sound impacts on marine mammals calls for studies on sound source characteristics and the behavioral impact of specific sources on individual animals. Our goal is to understand the vocal and behavioral response of individual blue whales to high-intensity ship noise, resulting from the close geographic association between known foraging grounds and commercial shipping lanes off California. To accomplish this goal we deploy acoustic recording tags on individual blue whales within and near the shipping lanes and concurrently monitoring shipping traffic using AIS. The behavioral reaction of the whale to ship is then evaluated based on the tag data, the overall noise level, how close the ship approached. We also will conduct opportunistic studies of blue whale response to Navy sonars in the southern California region Performed in cooperation with University of California Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, CA; and Cascadia Research Collective, Olympia, WA.