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<mailto: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 njq@duke.edu<mailto:njq@duke.edu> https://scholars.duke.edu/person/nicola.quick http://biology.st-andrews.ac.uk/contact/staffProfile.aspx?sunid=njq