Long-term sound and movement recording tags to study natural behavior and reaction to ship noise of seals

• Published in: Ecology and Evolution
• Main Authors: Mikkelsen, Lonnie, Johnson, Mark, Wisniewska, Danuta Maria, van Neer, Abbo, Siebert, Ursula, Madsen, Peter Teglberg, Teilmann, Jonas
• Other Authors: European Commission, University of St Andrews. Scottish Oceans Institute, University of St Andrews. Bioacoustics group, University of St Andrews. Sound Tags Group, University of St Andrews. Sea Mammal Research Unit, University of St Andrews. Marine Alliance for Science & Technology Scotland, University of St Andrews. School of Biology
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: Anthropogenic noise; Behavioral response; Biologging; DTAG; Exposure rates; Gray seal; Harbor seal; Long-duration acoustic dataloggers; QH301 Biology; DAS; SDG 14 - Life Below Water; QH301; Jeremy; harbor seal
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10023/17020; https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.4923

This study was funded by the German Federal Agency of Nature Conservation under the project “Effects of underwater noise on marine vertebrates” (Cluster 7, Z1.2‐53302/2010/14) and “Under Water Noise Effects – UWE” (Project numbers FKZ 3515822000). MJ was supported for development of the tags by a Marie Sklodowska‐Curie career integration grant and by the Marine Alliance for Science and Technology Scotland. PTM and DMW were partly supported by a large frame grant from the Danish National Research Council. DMW was also supported by an Office of Naval Research grant to Jeremy Goldbogen at Stanford University. 1. The impact of anthropogenic noise on marine fauna is of increasing conservation concern with vessel noise being one of the major contributors. Animals that rely on shallow coastal habitats may be especially vulnerable to this form of pollution. 2. Very limited information is available on how much noise from ship traffic individual animals experience, and how they may react to it due to a lack of suitable methods. To address this, we developed long-duration audio and 3D-movement tags (DTAGs) and deployed them on three harbor seals and two gray seals in the North Sea during 2015-2016. 3. These tags recorded sound, accelerometry, magnetometry, and pressure continuously for up to 21 days. GPS positions were also sampled for one seal continuously throughout the recording period. A separate tag, combining a camera and an accelerometer logger, was deployed on two harbor seals to visualize specific behaviors that helped interpret accelerometer signals in the DTAG data. 4. Combining data from depth, accelerometer, and audio sensors, we found that animals spent 6.6%-42.3% of the time hauled out (either on land or partly submerged), and 5.3%-12.4% of their at-sea time resting at the sea bottom, while the remaining time was used for traveling, resting at surface, and foraging. Animals were exposed to audible vessel noise 2.2%-20.5% of their time when in water, and we demonstrate that interruption of functional ...