Investigating the effects of underwater noise from two vessels on the behaviour of short-finned pilot whales.

Autor: Arranz P; Departmento de Biología Animal, Edafología y Geología, Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain. Electronic address: arranz@ull.edu.es., De la Cruz-Modino R; Instituto Universitario de Investigación Social y Turismo, Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain. Electronic address: rmodino@ull.edu.es., Sprogis KR; The UWA Oceans Institute and School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Great Southern Marine Research Facility, Albany, WA 6330, Australia. Electronic address: kate.sprogis@uwa.edu.au.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Marine environmental research [Mar Environ Res] 2024 Jul; Vol. 199, pp. 106574. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 May 31.
DOI: 10.1016/j.marenvres.2024.106574
Abstrakt: Multiple whale-watching vessels may operate around cetaceans at any one time, and targeted animals may experience underwater noise effects. We hypothesised that the cumulative noise of two vessels with low source levels (SLs) will elicit lower behavioural disturbance in short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus) compared to a single vessel with a higher SL. We measured the behaviour of whales during 26 controls (stationary vessel >300 m) and 44 treatments off Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain). Treatments consisted of vessel approaches mimicking whale-watch scenarios (distance ∼60 m, speed 1.5 kn). Approaches with two simultaneous vessels, with maximum cumulative mid and low-frequency (0.2-110 kHz) weighted source levels (SLs MF-LF ) 137-143 dB, did not affect mother-calf pairs' resting, nursing, diving, respiration rate or inter-breath interval. However, a louder single vessel approach with twin petrol engines at SLs MF - LF 139-151 dB significantly decreased the proportion of time resting for the mother. The results suggest that if a single or two vessels are present, if the cumulative SL is < 143 dB, the behavioural disturbance on the whales will be negligible. By examining noise effects from multiple vessels on the behaviour of pilot whales, the importance of incorporating a noise threshold into whale-watching guidelines was emphasised.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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