Southern right whale vocalizations on foraging grounds in South Georgia.

Susannah V Calderan,Emma L Carroll,Emilie N Stepien,Amy S Kennedy,Danielle L Buss,Jennifer A Jackson,Russell C Leaper,Brian S Miller,Artur Andriolo

doi:10.1121/10.0005433

Abstract

Southern right whale vocalizations were recorded concurrently with visual observations off the sub-Antarctic Island of South Georgia, and the characteristics of these calls were described. Calls were also compared to those of humpback whales at South Georgia, to determine how the two species might reliably be distinguished acoustically. The southern right whale calls measured (which were all upcalls) had lower frequency with peak energy and were mostly shorter in duration than the calls measured from humpback whales. The frequency upsweep and the lack of harmonics of southern right whale calls were also diagnostic characteristics.

Highlights

The southern right whale calls measured had lower frequency with peak energy and were mostly shorter in duration than the calls measured from humpback whales
All species of right whale are known to produce a range of low frequency sounds; the vocalizations of North Atlantic (Eubalaena glacialis), North Pacific (E. japonica), and southern right whales (E. australis) have all been previously described (Clark, 1982; McDonald and Moore, 2002; Mellinger et al, 2004; Parks and Tyack, 2005; Parks et al, 2011; Webster et al, 2016; Dombroski et al, 2020; Shabangu et al, 2020)
We describe vocalizations of southern right whales which can be directly linked to visual sightings. These were recorded on their austral summer foraging grounds around South Georgia, an island in the Atlantic Sector of the Southern Ocean to the south of the Polar Front

Summary

Introduction

All species of right whale are known to produce a range of low frequency sounds; the vocalizations of North Atlantic (Eubalaena glacialis), North Pacific (E. japonica), and southern right whales (E. australis) have all been previously described (Clark, 1982; McDonald and Moore, 2002; Mellinger et al, 2004; Parks and Tyack, 2005; Parks et al, 2011; Webster et al, 2016; Dombroski et al, 2020; Shabangu et al, 2020). Right whale vocalizations comprise low frequency sounds, mostly with call energy

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