Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-tj2md Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T10:17:53.349Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Two new grey whale call types detected on bioacoustic tags

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 December 2016

Anaid López-Urbán
Affiliation:
Posgrado en Ciencias del Mar y Limnología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad Universitaria, Circuito Exterior S/N, Mexico
Aaron Thode*
Affiliation:
Marine Physical Laboratory, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, San Diego, CA 92093-0205, USA
Carmen Bazúa Durán
Affiliation:
Laboratorio de Acústica, Departamento de Física, Facultad de Ciencias, UNAM, Circuito Exterior s/n, Cd. Universitaria, 04510 México, D.F., México
Jorge UrbáN-R
Affiliation:
Departamento de Biología Marina, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California Sur, km 5.5 Carretera al Sur, Mezquitito, La Paz, B. C. S.23080, México
Steven Swartz
Affiliation:
Laguna San Ignacio Ecosystem Science Program, 14700 Springfield Road, Darnestown, Maryland 20874, USA
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: A. Thode Marine Physical Laboratory, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, San Diego, CA 92093-0205, USA email: athode@ucsd.edu

Abstract

Between 2008 and 2010, 27 acoustic tags were applied to various age and reproductive classes of grey whales in Laguna San Ignacio, Mexico, a part of the Biosphere Reserve ‘El Vizcaino’. Besides previously described S1 and S3 calls, two additional calls were identified: the impulsive S8 call and the slightly frequency-modulated S9 call. These two additional S8 and S9 calls are by far the most common grey whale sounds detected on tags, even though contemporary bottom-mounted acoustic recordings also collected from the lagoon in 2008 yielded no S8 or S9 calls. The new S8 and old S3 calls display similar spectral maxima, even though the S3 is a frequency-modulated harmonic call and the S8 is a broadband impulsive call. This spectral analysis provides evidence that these new call types are not artefacts arising from mechanical vibration or flow noise.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Burgess, W.C., Tyack, P.L., Boeuf, B.J.L. and Costa, D.P. (1998) A programmable acoustic recording tag and first results from free-ranging northern elephant seals. Deep-Sea Research II 45, 13271351.Google Scholar
Crane, N.L. and Lashkari, K. (1996) Sound production of gray whales, Eschrichtius robustus, along their migration route: a new approach to signal analysis. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 100, 18781886.Google Scholar
Dahlheim, M.E. (1987) Bio-acoustics of the gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus). PhD thesis. University of British Columbia.Google Scholar
Kinsler, L.E., Frey, A.R., Coppens, A.B. and Sanders, J.V. (1982) Fundamentals of acoustics. Chichester: John Wiley and Sons.Google Scholar
Moore, S.E. and Ljungblad, D.K. (1984) Gray whales in the Beaufort, Chukchi, and Bering Seas: distribution and sound production. In Jones, M.L., Swartz, S.L. and Leatherwood, S. (eds) The gray whale. New York, NY: Academic Press, pp. 543559.Google Scholar
Ollervides, F. and Rohrkasse, S. (2007) Repertorio acústico de la ballena gris (Eschrichtius robustus) en Bahía Magdalena. In Funes-Rodriguez, R., Gomez Gutierrez, J. and Palomares-García, R. (eds) Estudios ecológicos en Bahía Magdalena. La Paz, Baja California Sur, México: CICIMAR-IPN, pp. 263274.Google Scholar
Ponce, D., Thode, A.M., Guerra, M., Urban, J. and Swartz, S. (2012) Relationship between visual counts and call detection rates of gray whales (Eschrichtius robustus) in Laguna San Ignacio, Mexico. Journal of Acoustical Society of America 131, 27002713.Google Scholar
Stafford, K.M., Moore, S.E., Spillane, M. and Wiggins, S. (2007) Gray whale calls recorded near barrow, Alaska, throughout the winter of 2003–04. Arctic 60, 167172.Google Scholar
Wisdom, S. (2000) Sound production development in gray whales. MS thesis. University of San Diego, California.Google Scholar