Acoustic detections of Arctic marine mammals near Ulukhaktok, Northwest Territories

• Main Authors: Halliday, William David, Pine, Matthew K, Insley, Stephen J, Soares, Rosana N, Kortsalo, Piia, Mouy, Xavier
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: NRC Research Press (a division of Canadian Science Publishing) 2018
• Subjects: Arctic; Northwest Territories; Canada; Ulukhaktok; Arctic marine mammals; Balaena mysticetus; bearded seal; Beluga; Beluga whale; Beluga*; bowhead whale; Delphinapterus leucas; Erignathus barbatus; Pusa hispida; ringed seal; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1807/93285; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/abs/10.1139/cjz-2018-0077

The Arctic marine environment is changing rapidly through a combination of sea ice loss and increased anthropogenic activity. Given these changes can affect marine animals in a variety of ways, understanding the spatial and temporal distributions of Arctic marine animals is imperative. We use passive acoustic monitoring to examine the presence of marine mammals near Ulukhaktok, Northwest Territories, Canada, from October 2016 to April 2017. We documented bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus Linnaeus, 1758) and beluga whale (Delphinapterus leucas Pallas, 1776) vocalizations later into the autumn than expected, and we recorded bowhead whales in early April. We recorded ringed seal (Pusa hispida Schreber, 1775) vocalizations throughout our deployment, with higher vocal activity than in other studies, and with peak vocal activity in January. We recorded bearded seals (Erignathus barbatus Erxleben, 1777) throughout the deployment, with peak vocal activity in February. We recorded lower bearded seal vocal activity than other studies, and almost no vocal activity near the beginning of the spring breeding season. Both seal species vocalized more when ice concentration was high. These patterns in vocal activity document the presence of each species at this site over autumn and winter, and are a useful comparison for future monitoring. The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author.