Acoustic occurrence detection of a newly recorded Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin population in waters southwest of Hainan Island, China

Abstract

In 2014, Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins were recorded for the first time in waters southwest of Hainan Island, China. In this paper, the temporal occurrence of Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins in this region was detected by stationary passive acoustic monitoring. During the 130-day observation period (from January to July 2016), 1969 click trains produced by Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins were identified, and 262 ten-minute recording bins contained echolocation click trains of dolphins, of which 70.9% were at night and 29.1% were during the day. A diurnal rhythm with a nighttime peak in acoustic detections was found. Passive acoustic detections indicated that the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins frequently occurred in this area and were detected mainly at night. This information may be relevant to conservation efforts for these dolphins in the near future.