East coast marine mammal acoustic study: using multiple modalities to assess
habitat usage by harbour porpoises and bottlenose dolphins
K.J. Palmer(1)*, Dr. Kate Brookes(2), Dr. Luke Rendell(1)
(1) Sea Mammal Research Unit, Scottish Oceans Institute, University of St Andrews
(2) Marine Scotland: Science
* kp37@st-andrews.ac.uk
Planned Wind Farm Locations
Introduction
Major investments in offshore wind power are
planned around Scotland in the coming years and
particularly on the east coast of Scotland. Due to
potential noise emissions associated with the
development work, there is a need to effectively
monitor the impact of the installation and operation
of the wind turbines on marine mammals. Passive
acoustic monitoring provides a way to meet this
need.
Target Species
Acoustic Study Sites
Lat
Hel
Cro
Fra
Spe
Cru
Sto
Abr
StA
Stb
Harbour Porpoise
(Phocoena phocoena)
Bottlenose Dolphin
(Tursiops truncatus)
CPODs (green dots), SM2Ms (red dots) and
PAMBuoys (yellow dots) along
Materials
Archival Data Sources
C-POD/SM2M Deployment Duration (Year 1 of 4)
C-PODs
Jun-13
• 30 Units
• Continuous monitoring
• dolphin/porpoise positive time
Jul-13
Aug-13
Sep-13
Sep-13
Oct-13
Nov-13
Nov-13
Dec-13
Lat
Lat
Hel
Hel
Cro
SM2Ms
•
•
•
•
Jul-13
Cro
Spe
10 SM2Ms
Duty-cycled
Acoustic Data
96 kHz Sample Rate
Spe
Fra
Cru
Sto
Sto
Abr
Abr
Real-Time Acoustic Data
PAMBuoy
StA
Rate (per 30 minutes)
1000
800
Stb
600
Stb
400
200
0
15/08
20/08
25/08
30/08
04/09
09/09
14/09
19/09
24/09
Whistle data starting 17-Sep-2011 13:10:30
16
Frequency (kHz)
• 3 PAMBuoys
• Continuous strategic acoustic
monitoring
• Timed recordings
• Dolphin whistle contour
extractions
• Ambient noise levels
StA
Whistle rate data for 20110816 to 20110924; Frequency range [5-15] kHz, rate per 30 minutes
1200
14
12
10
8
6
4
50
51
52
53
54
Time (seconds)
55
56
57
29/09
Temporal coverage of CPODs (green) and SM2Ms (red) data from the
first year of the acoustic study. Our challenge will be to integrate
these disparate data sources in order to gain meaningful insights to
habitat selection of protected bottlenose dolphins and harbor
porpoises.
Preliminary CPOD Results
Future Aims and Objectives
1. Determine baseline habitat use by bottlenose dolphins
and harbour porpoises along the East Scottish Coast
2. Determine ambient noise levels at 11 deployment
locations
3. Develop analysis methods for processing high volume
acoustic data
4. Track individual bottlenose dolphins based on signature
whistles
Acknowledgements
This work was co-sponsored by the University of St. Andrews
School of Biology and Marine Scotland. This work received
funding from the MASTS pooling initiative (The Marine Alliance
for Science and Technology for Scotland) and their support is
gratefully acknowledged. MASTS is funded by the Scottish
Funding Council (grant reference HR09011) and contributing
institutions. PAMBuoys were supported by the Crown Estate and
Scottish Enterprise. We are grateful to Moray First Marine, the
crew of the Northern Lighthouse Board’s Polestar, the crew of
the RV Alba na Mara, and Marine Scotland Science staff for
deploying and recovering the archival units.