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Singing through winter nights: Seasonal and diel occurrence of humpback whale ( Megaptera novaeangliae ) calls in and around the Gully MPA , offshore eastern Canada
Author(s) -
Kowarski Katie,
Evers Clair,
MoorsMurphy Hilary,
Martin Bruce,
Denes Samuel L.
Publication year - 2018
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/mms.12447
Subject(s) - humpback whale , diel vertical migration , fishery , canyon , oceanography , geography , submarine pipeline , cetacea , whale , geology , biology , cartography
Abstract Humpback whale use of areas off eastern Canada is poorly understood, a knowledge gap that could impact future conservation efforts. We describe the acoustic occurrence of humpback whales in and around the Gully Marine Protected Area ( MPA ), an eastern Scotian Shelf submarine canyon. Near‐continuous acoustic recordings sampling at 16 kH z were collected from the MPA and nearby slope areas from October 2012 to September 2014 using near‐bottom recorders. In an offshore region where humpbacks were thought to be rare, we observed calls from October to June with a peak in song and nonsong calls in December and January. This suggests that some individuals occur in Canadian waters in winter and the Gully region may be a North Atlantic humpback whale migratory corridor. Calls were predominantly songs indicating potential mating activities. Song and nonsong calls occurred more at sunset and during hours of darkness than during daylight. This study improves our understanding of the seasonal occurrence of humpback whales on the Scotian Slope and, more specifically, their use of an offshore protected area.