Abstract
Analysis of a year-long passive acoustic dataset collected at Thirtymile Bank from December 2012 to December 2013 revealed two main types of response, if any, in the vocalization behavior of fin whales to passing ships. The whales ceased calling or reduced the vocalization intensity and then resumed it after the ship passes, or the vocalization intensity increased during the passage and remained elevated for a short period of time afterward. While the response has been primarily observed in 20 Hz calls, several cases have been observed when the call pattern changed with 40 Hz calls recorded after the ship passed. Our study quantifies observed response in terms of both vocalization intensity and call rates. The latter is made possible by applying an image-based detection algorithm allowing for extraction of individual calls. Intensity variations and call rate changes related to ship sounds are statistically estimated, as well as the type and strength of the response to ship sound amplitude, frequency content and relative position of the whales to the passing ships. The received level of the ship sounds presumably heard by whales is modeled using an acoustic propagation model and a Monte Carlo approach to estimate the unknown whale location.
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