Potential for spatial displacement of Cook Inlet beluga whales by anthropogenic noise in critical habitat

Abstract

ESR Endangered Species Research Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsSpecials ESR 32:43-57 (2017) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/esr00786 Theme Section: 21st century paradigms for measuring and managing the effects of anthropogenic ocean noise Potential for spatial displacement of Cook Inlet beluga whales by anthropogenic noise in critical habitat Robert J. Small1,*, Brian Brost2, Mevin Hooten3,2,4, Manuel Castellote5,6, Jeffrey Mondragon1 1Alaska Department of Fish and Game, 1255 West 8th Street, Juneau, AK 99801, USA 2Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology, Colorado State University, 1484 Campus Delivery, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA 3U.S. Geological Survey, Colorado Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, 1484 Campus Delivery, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA 4Department of Statistics, Colorado State University, 1484 Campus Delivery, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA 5Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean (JISAO), University of Washington, 3737 Brooklyn Avenue NE, Seattle, WA 98105, USA 6Alaska Fisheries Science Center, Marine Mammal Laboratory, 7600 Sand Point Way NE, Seattle, WA 98115, USA *Corresponding author: bob.small@alaska.gov ABSTRACT: The population of beluga whales in Cook Inlet, Alaska, USA, declined by nearly half in the mid-1990s, primarily from an unsustainable harvest, and was listed as endangered in 2008. In 2014, abundance was ~340 whales, and the population trend during 1999-2014 was -1.3% yr-1. Cook Inlet beluga whales are particularly vulnerable to anthropogenic impacts, and noise that has the potential to reduce communication and echolocation range considerably has been documented in critical habitat; thus, noise was ranked as a high potential threat in the Cook Inlet beluga Recovery Plan. The current recovery strategy includes research on effects of threats potentially limiting recovery, and thus we examined the potential impact of anthropogenic noise in critical habitat, specifically, spatial displacement. Using a subset of data on anthropogenic noise and beluga detections from a 5 yr acoustic study, we evaluated the influence of noise events on beluga occupancy probability. We used occupancy models, which account for factors that affect detection probability when estimating occupancy, the first application of these models to examine the potential impacts of anthropogenic noise on marine mammal behavior. Results were inconclusive, primarily because beluga detections were relatively infrequent. Even though noise metrics (sound pressure level and noise duration) appeared in high-ranking models as covariates for occupancy probability, the data were insufficient to indicate better predictive ability beyond those models that only included environmental covariates. Future studies that implement protocols designed specifically for beluga occupancy will be most effective for accurately estimating the effect of noise on beluga displacement. KEY WORDS: Beluga whales · Anthropogenic noise · Spatial displacement · Occupancy models Full text in pdf format Supplementary material PreviousNextCite this article as: Small RJ, Brost B, Hooten M, Castellote M, Mondragon J (2017) Potential for spatial displacement of Cook Inlet beluga whales by anthropogenic noise in critical habitat. Endang Species Res 32:43-57. https://doi.org/10.3354/esr00786 Export citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in ESR Vol. 32. Online publication date: February 07, 2017 Print ISSN: 1863-5407; Online ISSN: 1613-4796 Copyright © 2017 Inter-Research.