Migratory behavior of eastern North Pacific gray whales tracked using a hydrophone array

PLoS One. 2017 Oct 30;12(10):e0185585. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0185585. eCollection 2017.

Abstract

Eastern North Pacific gray whales make one of the longest annual migrations of any mammal, traveling from their summer feeding areas in the Bering and Chukchi Seas to their wintering areas in the lagoons of Baja California, Mexico. Although a significant body of knowledge on gray whale biology and behavior exists, little is known about their vocal behavior while migrating. In this study, we used a sparse hydrophone array deployed offshore of central California to investigate how gray whales behave and use sound while migrating. We detected, localized, and tracked whales for one full migration season, a first for gray whales. We verified and localized 10,644 gray whale M3 calls and grouped them into 280 tracks. Results confirm that gray whales are acoustically active while migrating and their swimming and acoustic behavior changes on daily and seasonal time scales. The seasonal timing of the calls verifies the gray whale migration timing determined using other methods such as counts conducted by visual observers. The total number of calls and the percentage of calls that were part of a track changed significantly over both seasonal and daily time scales. An average calling rate of 5.7 calls/whale/day was observed, which is significantly greater than previously reported migration calling rates. We measured a mean speed of 1.6 m/s and quantified heading, direction, and water depth where tracks were located. Mean speed and water depth remained constant between night and day, but these quantities had greater variation at night. Gray whales produce M3 calls with a root mean square source level of 156.9 dB re 1 μPa at 1 m. Quantities describing call characteristics were variable and dependent on site-specific propagation characteristics.

MeSH terms

  • Animal Migration*
  • Animals
  • Pacific Ocean
  • Sound Spectrography / instrumentation*
  • Vocalization, Animal*
  • Whales / physiology*

Grants and funding

RAG received a fellowship from the Science, Mathematics and Research for Transformation Defense Scholarship for Service Program funded by ASD/R&E (Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Education), Defense –Wide / PE0601120D8Z National Defense Education Program (NDEP) / BA-1, Basic Research, Grant Number N00244-09-1-0081 (https://smart.asee.org/). JAH received a grant from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers using funds provided by the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Fleet through the Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Units. The authors would specifically like to thank Chip Johnson from Pacific Fleet. Grant Number W9126G-15-2-003. (http://www.cesu.psu.edu/). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.