Skip Navigation

ICES Journal of Marine Science: Journal du Conseil 2009 66(6):1029-1036; doi:10.1093/icesjms/fsp130
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Doksæter, L.
Right arrow Articles by Patel, R.
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by Doksæter, L.
Right arrow Articles by Patel, R.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© 2009 International Council for the Exploration of the Sea. Published by Oxford Journals. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

This article appears in the following ICES Journal of Marine Science issue: The Ecosystem Approach with Fisheries Acoustics and Complementary Technologies [View the issue table of contents]

Ecological studies of marine mammals using a seabed-mounted echosounder

Lise Doksæter, Olav R. Godø, Erik Olsen, Leif Nøttestad and Ruben Patel

Institute of Marine Research, PO Box 1870 Nordnes, NO-5817 Bergen, Norway

Correspondence to L. Doksæter: tel: +47 55 238662; fax: +47 55 238531; e-mail: lise.doksaeter{at}imr.no.

Doksæter, L., Godø, O. R., Olsen, E., Nøttestad, L., and Patel, R. 2009. Ecological studies of marine mammals using a seabed-mounted echosounder. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 66: 1029–1036.

A seabed-mounted, upward-looking, 38 kHz echosounder (Simrad EK60) was used to monitor cetaceans for 128 d between July 2004 and June 2005. The echosounder was placed at 52°N 30°W at a depth of 910 m, in a frontal area with continuous upwelling creating a hotspot of marine life at all trophic levels. Echo tracks were observed, apparently resulting from one or more animals in close temporal and spatial proximity. The 69 "acoustic detections" were examined with a principal component analysis (PCA) considering mean target strength (TS), group size, and maximum dive depth and duration. The PCA conservatively classified 45 of the acoustic detections as "cetaceans". Their mean TS values varied between –5 and –36 dB, in agreement with earlier TS measurements of whales and dolphins. Several of the supposed cetaceans were apparently feeding in the "deep-scattering layer" when this ascended at night. This study demonstrates that cetacean behaviour, including swimming, feeding, and vocalizing, can be observed and monitored with stationary active-acoustic instrumentation.

Keywords: acoustic detections, marine mammals, mid-Atlantic Ridge

Received 7 August 2008; accepted 20 February 2009.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 ICES J. Mar. Sci.Home page
C. M. Chittenden, R. J. Beamish, and R. S. McKinley
A critical review of Pacific salmon marine research relating to climate
ICES J. Mar. Sci., December 1, 2009; 66(10): 2195 - 2204.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.