Abstract
Between 14 February and 13, April 2006, we conducted 31 recording sessions of ambient noise and behavioral sampling of gray whales within Magdalena Bay, Mexico. This breeding lagoon does not have the same Marine Protected Area status compared to the other breeding lagoons of San Ignacio and Guerrero Negro in the Mexican Pacific coast. Poorly monitored guidelines and increasing boat traffic from whale−watching tourism in this area have the potential to affect the surface behavior of these animals and increase average ambient noise levels. Relative ambient noise levelswererecordedandcomparedtoapreviousstudy[Ollervides,2001]todetermine similarities or differences in the 5−year interval between both data sets. Although results are not comparable in decibel levels, probably due to equipment calibration problems, there was a significant difference between the different regions of the bay Kruskal−Wallis (p=0.0067). Activity levels ranged from 0.005–0.196 behaviors/whale/minute. Ambient noise levels ranged from 35.70–64.32 dB Re: 1 Pa. No correlation was found between the ambient noise levels in the bay and the activity level of gray whales (correlation value=0.0126; log correlation value=0.172). Further acoustic processing is currently underway.
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