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Estimating minke whale ( Balaenoptera acutorostrata ) boing sound density using passive acoustic sensors
Author(s) -
Martin Stephen W.,
Marques Tiago A.,
Thomas Len,
Morrissey Ronald P.,
Jarvis Susan,
DiMarzio Nancy,
Moretti David,
Mellinger David K.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
marine mammal science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.723
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1748-7692
pISSN - 0824-0469
DOI - 10.1111/j.1748-7692.2011.00561.x
Subject(s) - minke whale , balaenoptera , mark and recapture , whale , marine mammal , cetacea , distance sampling , sampling (signal processing) , fishery , acoustics , population , geology , biology , computer science , physics , telecommunications , abundance (ecology) , detector , demography , sociology
A bstract Density estimation for marine mammal species is performed primarily using visual distance sampling or capture‐recapture. Minke whales in Hawaiian waters are very difficult to sight; however, they produce a distinctive “boing” call, making them ideal candidates for passive acoustic density estimation. We used an array of 14 bottom‐mounted hydrophones, distributed over a 60 × 30 km area off Kauai, Hawaii, to estimate density during 12 d of recordings in early 2006. We converted the number of acoustic cues ( i.e. , boings) detected using signal processing software into a cue density by accounting for the false positive rate and probability of detection. The former was estimated by manual validation, the latter by applying spatially explicit capture‐recapture (SECR) methods to a subset of data where we had determined which hydrophones detected each call. Estimated boing density was 130 boings per hour per 10,000 km 2 (95% CI 104–163). Little is known about the population's acoustic behavior, so conversion from boing to animal density is difficult. As a demonstration of the method, we used a tentative boing rate of 6.04 boings per hour, from a single animal tracked in 2009, to give an estimate of 21.5 boing‐calling minke whales per 10,000 km 2 .