Bowhead whale year-round acoustic presence and habitat associations in the Amundsen Gulf, Western Canadian Arctic, 2018–2019

• Published in: Progress in Oceanography
• Main Authors: Diogou, Nikoletta, Halliday, William D., Dosso, Stan E., Mouy, Xavier, Niemi, Andrea, Insley, Stephen J.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Progress in Oceanography 2023
• Subjects: Arctic; Canada; Amundsen Gulf; Aurora Research Institute; bowhead whale; Inuvialuit
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1828/15542; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pocean.2023.103004

We are grateful to the captain and crew of the CCGS Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the crew from DFO, and specifically the Chief Science Officer, H. Melling, for deploying and recovering our oceanographic moorings. Many thanks also to the three anonymous reviewers that helped with insightful comments to improve this manuscript. Acoustic monitoring work by WCS Canada is licenced under Aurora Research Institute permit 16330, and research was approved and support by the Inuvialuit Game Council (IGC) and Fisheries Joint Management Committee (FJMC). We are extremely grateful to both IGC and FJMC for continuing to support our research and providing valuable insights into the amazing and changing ecosystem in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region. Understanding the temporal and spatial distribution of bowhead whales is ecologically and culturally important in the context of a rapidly changing climate. Long-term monitoring can reveal alterations in the bowhead whale distribution range, spatiotemporal patterns, and migration phenology that can be responses to global change. However, Arctic ecosystems are challenging to monitor. Here, we deployed passive acoustic recorders at three locations in the southern Amundsen Gulf (western Canadian Arctic) between September 2018 and September 2019 to detect bowhead whale presence, quantify their seasonal occurrence, and examine the oceanographic conditions that correlate with bowhead occurrence. Results show clear seasonal patterns in the occurrence of bowheads with increased acoustic presence in spring/summer at all sites. In contrast to their typical migratory behavior, bowhead sounds were detected throughout the year at all sites, providing evidence of a number of overwintering animals in what is normally their summer feeding ground. The continuous occupancy of bowheads from May to August at all sites emphasizes the importance of this area as a core foraging ground for this population. Our results indicate a clear selection for the shallowest habitat over an annual cycle. Statistical habitat ...