Dear all,
We are pleased to announce the online publication of our article in Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
Quick, N., Scott-Hayward, L., Sadykova, D, Nowacek, D. and Read, A. 2016. Effects of a scientific echo sounder on the behavior of short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus). 10.1139/cjfas-2016-0293
Abstract:
Active echo sounding devices are often employed for commercial or scientific purposes in the foraging habitats of marine mammals. We conducted an experiment off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, USA to assess whether the behavior of short-finned
pilot whales changed when exposed to an EK60 scientific echo sounder. We attached digital acoustic recording tags (DTAGs) to nine individuals, five of which were exposed. A hidden Markov model (HMM) to characterize diving states with and without exposure provided
no evidence for a change in foraging behavior. However, Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE’s), to model changes in heading variance over the entire tag record, under all experimental conditions, showed a consistent increase in heading variance during exposure,
over all values of depth and pitch. This suggests that, regardless of behavioral state, the whales changed their heading more frequently when the echo sounder was active. This response could represent increased vigilance in which whales maintained awareness
of echo sounder location by increasing their heading variance, and provides the first quantitative analysis on reactions of cetaceans to a scientific echo sounder.
You can access the article here
http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/10.1139/cjfas-2016-0293#.V_P7r_krL0M
Or send any enquires directly to me at
njq@duke.edu
Thank you
Nicola
Dr Nicola J. Quick
Research Scientist
Nicholas School of the Environment
Duke Marine Lab
135 Duke Marine Lab Road
Beaufort
NC 28516
USA
https://scholars.duke.edu/person/nicola.quick
http://biology.st-andrews.ac.uk/contact/staffProfile.aspx?sunid=njq