How is sound used to reduce vessel strikes?

Entrance channels to commercial ports and other, busy coastal waters overlap with the habitat for many cetaceans, including the critically engendered North Atlantic right whale. The total population for this species is approximately 340 animals^[1]Pettis, H. M., Pace, R. M. III, & Hamilton, P. K. (2023). North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium 2022 Annual Report Card. Report to the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium, an estimate that represents a continued downward trend since 2011. Nearly hunted to extinction in the 1890s, vessel collision is now one of the leading human impacts on the species. Fishing gear entanglement as well as distribution shifts in their copepod prey also contribute to the continued decline in North Atlantic right whale numbers.

There is an effort to reduce the risk of ship strike. Visual and acoustics surveys have informed the implementation of speed restrictions in locations along the U.S. east coast and Canada, and the movement of shipping lanes to reduce the risk of collision between large ships and whales. However, visual and passive acoustic surveys for North Atlantic right whales show their distribution patterns to have shifted throughout their range^[2]Davis, G. E., Baumgartner, M. F., Bonnell, J. M., Bell, J., Berchok, C., Bort Thornton, J., Brault, S., Buchanan, G., Charif, R. A., Cholewiak, D., Clark, C. W., Corkeron, P., Delarue, J., Dudzinski, K., Hatch, L., Hildebrand, J., Hodge, L., Klinck, H., Kraus, S., … Van Parijs, S. M. (2017). Long-term passive acoustic recordings track the changing distribution of North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) from 2004 to 2014. Scientific Reports, 7(1), 13460. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-13359-3^[3]Simard, Y., Roy, N., Giard, S., & Aulanier, F. (2019). North Atlantic right whale shift to the Gulf of St. Lawrence in 2015, revealed by long-term passive acoustics. Endangered Species Research, 40, 271–284. https://doi.org/10.3354/esr01005^[4]Davis, G. E., Baumgartner, M. F., Corkeron, P. J., Bell, J., Berchok, C., Bonnell, J. M., Bort Thornton, J., Brault, S., Buchanan, G. A., Cholewiak, D. M., Clark, C. W., Delarue, J., Hatch, L. T., Klinck, H., Kraus, S. D., Martin, B., Mellinger, D. K., Moors‐Murphy, H., Nieukirk, S., … Van Parijs, S. M. (2020). Exploring movement patterns and changing distributions of baleen whales in the western North Atlantic using a decade of passive acoustic data. Global Change Biology, 26(9), 4812–4840. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15191. Significantly fewer whales are concentrating in traditional feeding areas such as the Scotian Shelf and Bay of Fundy, Canada. Right whales have also been found to be present more often and over longer periods of times in regions such as the central and western Gulf of Maine and Massachusetts-Cape Cod Bay system^[5]Mussoline, S., Risch, D., Clark, C., Hatch, L., Weinrich, M., Wiley, D., Thompson, M., Corkeron, P., & Van Parijs, S. (2012). Seasonal and diel variation in North Atlantic right whale up-calls: Implications for management and conservation in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean. Endangered Species Research, 17(1), 17–26. https://doi.org/10.3354/esr00411^[6]Bort, J., Van Parijs, S., Stevick, P., Summers, E., & Todd, S. (2015). North Atlantic right whale Eubalaena glacialis vocalization patterns in the central Gulf of Maine from October 2009 through October 2010. Endangered Species Research, 26(3), 271–280. https://doi.org/10.3354/esr00650^[7]Charif, R. A., Shiu, Y., Muirhead, C. A., Clark, C. W., Parks, S. E., & Rice, A. N. (2020). Phenological changes in North Atlantic right whale habitat use in Massachusetts Bay. Global Change Biology, 26(2), 734–745. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14867. Protective measures in place for right whales may not apply in these new regions (e.g., Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada, or U.S. mid-Atlantic waters) and/or extended seasons.

Passive acoustic monitoring has become a critical tool for determining right whale presence, informing management decisions, and mitigating further human impact, such as ship strike. Right whales produce a variety of low frequency sounds. The most common are between 10 Hz and 1000 Hz. One typical right whale vocalization used to communicate with other right whales is the “up call”. It is a short “whoop” sound that rises from about 50 Hz to 440 Hz and lasts about 2 seconds (see below). Detection of up-calls have been the most common means of determining right whale presence from acoustic data.

Real-time automatic-detection buoys monitor for right whales off multiple sites along the Atlantic coast including Virginia, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts and Canada. In accordance with the development of an LNG terminal in the Port of Boston, Massachusetts, ten auto-detection buoys were deployed between the port’s inbound and outbound shipping lanes. Data on right whale detections are available online and are also distributed by e-mail. The information is also incorporated into marine safety bulletins. Captains, other mariners, and the general public can also access the real-time information from the “Right Whale Listening Network”. Time from detection at the buoy to posting on the website can be as short as 20 minutes.

At this time, only LNG tankers are mandated to reduce their speeds to 10 knots in the areas around buoys that have detected whales. All other ships are encouraged to check whale-buoy alerts and slow down if necessary. Thus far, all LNG tankers have slowed their ship speed and/or adjusted their locations upon receiving a right whale alert. It is also important to note that other speed restriction zones exist along the U.S. East Coast- most vessels 65 feet or longer must travel at 10 knots or less in certain locations (called Seasonal Management Areas) at certain times of the year. For more information, please visit the NOAA Fisheries page on Reducing Vessel Strikes to North Atlantic Right Whales.

The live feed from the Right Whale Listening Network shows the latest detections of right whales in Massachusetts Bay. Other publicly accessible, interactive, data visualization tools have been developed to communicate up-to-date whale survey results, for North Atlantic right whales and other species, to scientific, regulatory and industrial sectors (e.g. WhaleMap and NOAA Fisheries Passive Acoustic Cetacean Map). Additionally, other near-real time passive acoustics networks to detect, identify, and alert mariners and other stakeholders to potential whales in an area are being implemented in other locations across the globe as a means to reduce ship strike (Baumgartner et al. 2018). For example, a moored acoustic buoy system is actively recording and relaying sounds recording for humpback, fin, and blue whales in shipping waters of Santa Barbara and San Francisco, CA (WhaleSafe, https://whalesafe.com/). Other near-real time, listening networks are monitoring for baleen whales in the Gulf of Corcovado, Chile, and sperm whales in the Mediterranean Sea.

In addition to stationary acoustic recording buoys, ocean gliders with the capability to record, detect, classify, and transmit information about baleen whale sounds in near real time are being utilized to expand listening networks in geographic space and time. Gliders are being used to monitor baleen whales and transmit information about baleen whale tonal sounds in U.S., Canadian, and Chilean waters^[8]Baumgartner, M. F., Fratantoni, D. M., Hurst, T. P., Brown, M. W., Cole, T. V. N., Van Parijs, S. M., & Johnson, M. (2013). Real-time reporting of baleen whale passive acoustic detections from ocean gliders. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 134(3), 1814–1823. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.4816406^[9]Baumgartner, M. F., Bonnell, J., Corkeron, P. J., Van Parijs, S. M., Hotchkin, C., Hodges, B. A., Bort Thornton, J., Mensi, B. L., & Bruner, S. M. (2020). Slocum Gliders Provide Accurate Near Real-Time Estimates of Baleen Whale Presence From Human-Reviewed Passive Acoustic Detection Information. Frontiers in Marine Science, 7, 100. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.00100^[10]Kowarski, K. A., Gaudet, B. J., Cole, A. J., Maxner, E. E., Turner, S. P., Martin, S. B., Johnson, H. D., & Moloney, J. E. (2020). Near real-time marine mammal monitoring from gliders: Practical challenges, system development, and management implications. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 148(3), 1215–1230. https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0001811.

Additional Links on DOSITS

• Audio Gallery > North Atlantic Right Whale
• Technology Gallery > Passive Acoustic Recording Tags
• Technology Gallery > Real-time Passive Acoustic Sensors
• Webinar Archive > Passive Acoustic Monitoring Overview

Additional Resources

• NOAA Fisheries, NOAA Office of Protected Resources Ship Strike Reduction Strategy
• NOAA Fisheries, Northeast U.S. Right Whale Sighting Advisory System (SAS)
• Whale Safe
• Blue Boat Initiative
• Passive Acoustic Cetacean Map (PACM)
• WhaleMap

References

• Baumgartner, M. F., Bonnell, J., Van Parijs, S. M., Corkeron, P. J., Hotchkin, C., Ball, K., Pelletier, L., Partan, J., Peters, D., Kemp, J., Pietro, J., Newhall, K., Stokes, A., Cole, T. V. N., Quintana, E., & Kraus, S. D. (2019). Persistent near real‐time passive acoustic monitoring for baleen whales from a moored buoy: System description and evaluation. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 10(9), 1476–1489. https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.13244.
• Christiansen, F., Dawson, S., Durban, J., Fearnbach, H., Miller, C., Bejder, L., Uhart, M., Sironi, M., Corkeron, P., Rayment, W., Leunissen, E., Haria, E., Ward, R., Warick, H., Kerr, I., Lynn, M., Pettis, H., & Moore, M. (2020). Population comparison of right whale body condition reveals poor state of the North Atlantic right whale. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 640, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps13299.
• Clark, C. W., Gillespie, D. M., Nowacek, D. P., & Parks, S. E. (2007). Listening to Their World: Acoustics for Monitoring and Protecting Right Whales in an Urbanized Ocean. In The urban whale: North Atlantic right whales at the crossroads (pp. 333–357). Harvard University Press.
• Johnson, H., Morrison, D., & Taggart, C. (2021). WhaleMap: A tool to collate and display whale survey results in near real-time. Journal of Open Source Software, 6(62), 3094. https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.03094.
• King, C. D., Chou, E., Rekdahl, M. L., Trabue, S. G., & Rosenbaum, H. C. (2021). Baleen whale distribution, behaviour and overlap with anthropogenic activity in coastal regions of the New York Bight. Marine Biology Research, 17(4), 380–400. https://doi.org/10.1080/17451000.2021.1967993.
• Muirhead, C. A., Warde, A. M., Biedron, I. S., Nicole Mihnovets, A., Clark, C. W., & Rice, A. N. (2018). Seasonal acoustic occurrence of blue, fin, and North Atlantic right whales in the New York Bight. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, 28(3), 744–753. https://doi.org/10.1002/aqc.2874.
• Skarsoulis, E. K., Piperakis, G. S., Orfanakis, E., Papadakis, P., Pavlidi, D., Kalogerakis, M. A., Alexiadou, P., & Frantzis, A. (2022). A Real-Time Acoustic Observatory for Sperm-Whale Localization in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. Frontiers in Marine Science, 9, 873888. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.873888.
• Whitt, A., Dudzinski, K., & Laliberté, J. (2013). North Atlantic right whale distribution and seasonal occurrence in nearshore waters off New Jersey, USA, and implications for management. Endangered Species Research, 20(1), 59–69. https://doi.org/10.3354/esr00486.