Journal ArticleDOI
Responses of cetaceans to anthropogenic noise
TLDR
In this paper, a review of the effects of anthropogenic noise on cetaceans has been published and their ability to document response(s), or the lack thereof, has improved.Abstract:
1
Since the last thorough review of the effects of anthropogenic noise on cetaceans in 1995, a substantial number of research reports has been published and our ability to document response(s), or the lack thereof, has improved. While rigorous measurement of responses remains important, there is an increased need to interpret observed actions in the context of population-level consequences and acceptable exposure levels. There has been little change in the sources of noise, with the notable addition of noise from wind farms and novel acoustic deterrent and harassment devices (ADDs/AHDs). Overall, the noise sources of primary concern are ships, seismic exploration, sonars of all types and some AHDs.
2
Responses to noise fall into three main categories: behavioural, acoustic and physiological. We reviewed reports of the first two exhaustively, reviewing all peer-reviewed literature since 1995 with exceptions only for emerging subjects. Furthermore, we fully review only those studies for which received sound characteristics (amplitude and frequency) are reported, because interpreting what elicits responses or lack of responses is impossible without this exposure information. Behavioural responses include changes in surfacing, diving and heading patterns. Acoustic responses include changes in type or timing of vocalizations relative to the noise source. For physiological responses we address the issues of auditory threshold shifts and ‘stress’, albeit in a more limited capacity; a thorough review of physiological consequences is beyond the scope of this paper.
3
Overall, we found significant progress in the documentation of responses of cetaceans to various noise sources. However, we are concerned about the lack of investigation into the potential effects of prevalent noise sources such as commercial sonars, depth finders and fisheries acoustics gear. Furthermore, we were surprised at the number of experiments that failed to report any information about the sound exposure experienced by their experimental subjects. Conducting experiments with cetaceans is challenging and opportunities are limited, so use of the latter should be maximized and include rigorous measurements and or modelling of exposure.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Grey seals use anthropogenic signals from acoustic tags to locate fish: evidence from a simulated foraging task
TL;DR: It is shown that grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) learn to use sounds from acoustic fish tags as an indicator of food location and use information provided by anthropogenic signals to enhance foraging success.
Journal ArticleDOI
Habituation to an acoustic harassment device (AHD) by killer whales depredating demersal longlines
TL;DR: Tixier et al. as mentioned in this paper investigated the effect of acoustic harassment devices (AHDs) on deterring depredation by killer whales and concluded that AHDs are ineffective in deterring whale depredations.
Journal ArticleDOI
Exploring spatial and temporal trends in the soundscape of an ecologically significant embayment
TL;DR: This study provides a baseline of ambient sound, useful for future management strategies in shallow embayments where anthropogenic pressure is likewise increasing.
Journal ArticleDOI
Behavior of captive herring exposed to naval sonar transmissions (1.0-1.6 kHz) throughout a yearly cycle
TL;DR: Herring reactions to sonar signals and other stimuli when kept in captivity under detailed acoustic and video monitoring underline the need for better understanding of the causal relationship between stimuli and reaction patterns of fish.
Journal ArticleDOI
Vibratory noise in anthropogenic habitats and its effect on prey detection in a web-building spider
Chung-Huey Wu,Damian O. Elias +1 more
TL;DR: These findings highlight the need to consider the vibratory sensory channel in assessing anthropogenic impacts on wildlife, and suggest that spiders' predatory performance is higher when webs are constructed on natural substrates when human activities and habitat alteration are widespread.
References
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Book
Marine mammals and noise
TL;DR: This paper presents a meta-anatomy of Marine Mammal Hearing, a probabilistic assessment of the response of marine mammals to man-made noise, and its consequences.
Journal ArticleDOI
A digital acoustic recording tag for measuring the response of wild marine mammals to sound
Mark Johnson,Peter L. Tyack +1 more
TL;DR: In this paper, a novel archival tag, called the DTAG, has been developed to monitor the behavior of marine mammals, and their response to sound, continuously throughout the dive cycle.
Journal ArticleDOI
Decline in Relative Abundance of Bottlenose Dolphins Exposed to Long-Term Disturbance
Lars Bejder,Amy Samuels,Hal Whitehead,Nick Gales,Janet Mann,Richard C. Connor,Michael R. Heithaus,Jana J. Watson-Capps,Cindy Flaherty,Michael Krützen +9 more
TL;DR: The substantial effect of tour vessels on dolphin abundance in a region of low-level tourism calls into question the presumption that dolphin-watching tourism is benign.
Journal ArticleDOI
Gas-bubble lesions in stranded cetaceans
Paul Jepson,Manuel Arbelo,Rob Deaville,I. A. P. Patterson,Pedro Castro,J.R. Baker,E. Degollada,H. M. Ross,Pedro Herráez,A. M. Pocknell,Francisco Rodríguez,F. E. Howie,A. Espinosa,R. J. Reid,José Raduan Jaber,Vidal Martín,Andrew A. Cunningham,Antonio Fernández +17 more
TL;DR: Evidence of acute and chronic tissue damage in stranded cetaceans that results from the formation in vivo of gas bubbles is presented, challenging the view that these mammals do not suffer decompression sickness.