Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Marine Mammal Science

Publication Date

4-1-2023

Volume

39

Issue

2

First Page

387

Last Page

421

Keywords

acoustic disturbance, anthropogenic noise, Arctic, automatic identification system, avoidance behavior, behavioral response, beluga whale, bio-logging tags, cetacean, disturbance threshold, ship traffic

DOI

10.1111/mms.12978

ISSN

08240469

Abstract

Arctic marine mammals face a multitude of challenges linked to climate change, including increasing anthropogenic noise from ship traffic. The beluga whale (Delphinapterus leucas), a predominately Arctic endemic cetacean, relies heavily on acoustic communication, with documented overlap between their vocalizations and hearing range and ship noise. Some belugas migrate through areas with the highest levels of ship traffic in the Pacific Arctic and exposure to ship noise is highly probable. Here, we document the responses of nine satellite-tagged Eastern Beaufort Sea belugas to encounters with ships in the Beaufort, Chukchi, and Bering Seas during July–December 2018. We report 177 occasions when ships were within 125 km of tagged belugas and quantified changes in lateral and vertical movements to investigate individual behavioral responses to ship approaches within 50 km (n = 23). Belugas' swim speed was negatively correlated with ship distance, showing possible changes in swim speed up to 79 km away. Changes in lateral and vertical movements, indicating disruption of behavior, were observed when some ships passed within 50 km. These findings corroborate previous studies that have shown behavioral responses of belugas to ships at distances far beyond visual range, implying belugas react to low-amplitude ship noise near ambient levels.

E-ISSN

17487692

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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