@article {58467,
	title = {Temporal occurrence of three blue whale populations in New Zealand waters from passive acoustic monitoring},
	journal = {Journal of Mammalogy},
	year = {2022},
	abstract = {<p>Describing spatial and temporal occurrence patterns of wild animal populations is important for understanding their evolutionary trajectories, population connectivity, and ecological niche specialization, with relevance for effective management. Throughout the world, blue whales produce stereotyped songs that enable identification of separate acoustic populations. We harnessed continuous acoustic recordings from five hydrophones deployed in the South Taranaki Bight (STB) region of Aotearoa New Zealand from January 2016 to February 2018. We examined hourly presence of songs from three different blue whale populations to investigate their contrasting ecological use of New Zealand waters. The New Zealand song was detected year-round with a seasonal cycle in intensity (peak February\&ndash;July), demonstrating the importance of the region to the New Zealand population as both a foraging ground and potential breeding area. The Antarctic song was present in two distinct peaks each year (June\&ndash;July; September\&ndash;October) and predominantly at the offshore recording locations, suggesting northbound and southbound migration between feeding and wintering grounds. The Australian song was only detected during a 10-day period in January 2017, implying a rare vagrant occurrence. We therefore infer that the STB region is the primary niche of the New Zealand population, a migratory corridor for the Antarctic population, and outside the typical range of the Australian population.</p>
},
	keywords = {bioacoustics, blue whale, distribution, ecology, marine mammals, New Zealand, passive acoustic monitoring, populations, vocalizations},
	doi = {10.1093/jmammal/gyac106},
	url = {https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyac106},
	author = {Dawn R Barlow and Holger Klinck and Dimitri Ponirakis and Mattea Holt Colberg and Leigh G. Torres}
}
@article {58197,
	title = {Acoustically advertising male harbour seals in southeast Alaska do not make biologically relevant acoustic adjustments in the presence of vessel noise},
	year = {2020},
	abstract = {<p>Aquatically breeding harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) males use underwater vocalizations during the breeding season to establish underwater territories, defend territories against intruder males, and possibly to attract females. Vessel noise overlaps in frequency with these vocalizations and could negatively impact breeding success by limiting communication space. In this study, we investigated whether harbour seals employed anti-masking strategies to maintain communication in the presence of vessel noise in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Harbour seals in this location did not sufficiently adjust source levels or acoustic parameters of vocalizations to compensate for acoustic masking. Instead, for every 1 dB increase in ambient noise, signal excess decreased by 0.84 dB, indicating a reduction in communication space when vessels passed. We suggest that harbour seals may already be acoustically advertising at or near a biologically maximal sound level and therefore lack the ability to increase call amplitude to adjust to changes in their acoustic environment. This may have significant implications for this aquatically breeding pinniped, particularly for populations in high noise regions.</p>
},
	keywords = {acoustic communication, harbour seals, marine mammals, Noise, vocalizations},
	doi = {10.1098/rsbl.2019.0795},
	url = {https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2019.0795},
	author = {Matthews, Leanna P. and Fournet, Michelle E. H. and Gabriele, Christine and Klinck, Holger and Parks, Susan E.}
}
