Multi-National Collaboration And Conservation Of Humpback Whales With The Caribbean Humpback Acoustic Monitoring Program (CHAMP)

Dr. Heather Heenehan presents a seminar describing her time working on multi-national collaboration and conservation of humpback whales with the Caribbean Humpback Acoustic Monitoring Programme (CHAMP).https://dune.une.edu/env_facpres/1000/thumbnail.jp

Caribbean Sea Soundscapes: Monitoring Humpback Whales, Biological Sounds, Geological Events, and Anthropogenic Impacts of Vessel Noise

Assessing marine soundscapes provides an understanding of the biological, geological and anthropogenic composition of a habitat, including species diversity, community composition, and human impacts. For this study, nine acoustic recorders were deployed between December 2016 and June 2017 off six Caribbean islands in several Marine Parks: the Dominican Republic (DR), St. Martin (SM), Guadeloupe east and west (GE, GW), Martinique (MA), Aruba (AR), and Bonaire (BO). Humpback whale song was recorded at five sites on four islands (DR, SM, GE, GW, and MA) and occurred on 49–93% of recording days. Song appeared first at the DR site and began 4–6 weeks later at GE, GW, and MA. No song was heard in AR and BO, the southernmost islands. A 2-week period was examined for the hourly presence of vessel noise and the number and duration of ship passages. Hourly vessel presence ranged from low (20% – DR, 30% – SM), medium (52% – MA, 54% – BO, 77% – GE) to near continuous (99% – GW; 100% – AR). Diurnal patterns were observed at BO, GE, and MA with few to no vessels present during night time hours, possibly reflecting the activity of recreational craft and fishing vessels. At the DR and GW sites, vessel traffic was ubiquitous for most of the day, likely reflecting heavy cruise ship and container ship presence. Soundscapes were diverse across islands with persistent fish choruses, sporadic sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) and dolphin (Delphinidae) presence at BO, minke whales (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) from late December to late February at MA and an earthquake recorded across all sites. These analyses provide an important first step in characterizing the health and species richness in Caribbean marine parks and demonstrate a surprising high anthropogenic foot print. Vessel traffic in particular contributes adversely to marine soundscapes, masking marine mammal sounds, potentially changing typical animal behavior and raising the risk of ship strike

Fort Richardson Ordnance Detonations and the Harbor Porpoise: A Case Study in Marine Mammal Bioacoustics

Hearing is extremely important for cetaceans because it is their “principal sense” (Weilgart, 2007) thus the harbor porpoise and other marine animals are highly dependent on sound for survival. This is why we should care about the impact of noise on animals like the harbor porpoise. Since sound travels so well in water, an explosion, sonar, boat noise, etc. can affect a very large area and thus many different species of marine mammals. Although military actions such as low frequency sonar have made recent news, noise has been affecting cetaceans, especially beaked whales, since at least 1991 (Weilgart, 2007). This study is an investigation of the possible impacts of artillery detonated on land on harbor porpoise hearing and covers some of the history of Fort Richardson, the legal and historical aspects and history of this type of concern, the science and physics of sound, marine mammal hearing and general biology of the harbor porpoise. Data were collected at the Fort Richardson Army base during June of 2007 by researchers from the University of Connecticut and the University of Rhode Island and will be used to determine the possible impacts that these detonations could have on the harbor porpoise

From Norris to Now: A comparison of historic and present-day management and research on spinner dolphins (Stenella longirostris) around the Island of Hawai‘i

The spinner dolphins (Stenella longirostris longirostris) of the Island of Hawai‘i use shallow, protected, warm and easily accessible bays during the day to rest and thus are targeted for swim-with dolphin programs. Since these interactions occur when the dolphins should be resting there is growing concern about the potential effects of these interactions and whether management interventions are required. Dr. Kenneth Norris was a pioneer marine mammal researcher and studied these spinner dolphins until the mid 1990’s. Using Kenneth Norris’ work as a historical baseline, I examined several key aspects of the spinner dolphin biology, research and management and how each has developed or changed since Norris and his colleagues originally studied the population. This project is presented as a set of web articles on the Spinner Dolphin Acoustics, Population Parameters and Human Impacts Research (SAPPHIRE) Project website

Spinner dolphin acoustic data

This data file includes the presence/absence of spinner dolphins from resting bays from acoustic recordings

Data from: Chronic exposure of Hawaii Island spinner dolphins (Stenella longirostris) to human activities

Habitat selection is strongly influenced by spatial variations in habitat quality and predation risk. Repeated exposure of wildlife to anthropogenic activities in important habitats may affect habitat selection, leading to negative biological consequences. We quantified the cumulative human exposure of a small, genetically-isolated and behaviourally-constrained spinner dolphin (Stenella longirostris) population, off Hawaii Island, and exposure effects on their daytime cumulative activity budget. Dolphins were exposed to human activities within 100m for 82.7% of the daytime, with a median duration of 10 min between exposure events. Individual dolphins spent on average 61.7% (SD=6.5) of their daytime resting. Of their total rest time, >90% occurred inside sheltered bays. Despite high levels of human exposure, we did not observe an effect on dolphin resting behaviour. The short intervals between exposure events likely prevent dolphins from returning to a natural resting state before the next event. Consequently, ‘control’ observations may represent a resting behaviour of a more vigilant nature. Chronic levels of exposure to human activities could lead to rest deprivation, displacement from preferred resting habitats and ultimately negative population level effects. These results have implications for new proposed legislation aiming to reduce dolphin exposure to human activities

Land-based time series behavioural data

Land-based time series behavioural data collected from Kealakekue and Kauhako Bays on the Kona Coast, Hawaii Islan

Individual spinner dolphins

Individual spinner dolphins identified from photo id surveys along the Kona Coast of Hawaii Island. These data show the proportion of time individual spinner dolphins were observed in each ba

Monthly abundance estimates

Monthly abundance estimates of spinner dolphins in each bay along the Kona Coast of Hawaii Islan