Listen! Mother and calf Humpback Whales “whispering” to one another to stay in contact.
These calls have to be quiet in order to reduce the potential of being detected by predators and, when in the breeding grounds, by male Humpbacks.
These important sounds can be “masked” by human made noise.
Is that motivation to help #OceanVoices be heard? Please share these posts.
We believe positive change will result from increased understanding of how important sound is to marine mammals, and how sound is magnified in the ocean.
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How to reduce impacts of noise in the ocean.
- Give marine mammals space
- Slow down
- Shut down when possible
- Improve vessel maintenance
- Realize how consumer behaviour and energy use leads to more noise in the ocean (and greater risk of collision).
Please see www.OceanVoices.ca for more information / solutions.
#ForTheWhales
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Animation: dawndudek
Audio: Dr. Simone Videsen, @aarhus_university and Prof. Lars Bejder, @uhmanoanews
Findings from Videsen et al (2017) include:
- “Vocalisations between mother and calf, which included very weak tonal and grunting sounds, were produced more frequently during active dives than suckling dives, suggesting that mechanical stimuli rather than acoustic cues are used to initiate nursing.
- Use of mechanical cues for initiating suckling and low level vocalisations with an active space of <100 m indicate a strong selection pressure for acoustic crypsis.
- Such inconspicuous behaviour likely reduces the risk of exposure to eavesdropping predators and male humpback whale escorts that may disrupt the high proportion of time spent nursing and resting, and hence ultimately compromise calf fitness.
- The small active space of the weak calls between mother and calf is very sensitive to increases in ambient noise from human encroachment thereby increasing the risk of mother–calf separation.”
#OceanVoices
#soundinthesea
#Humpback #Whale #TurnDownTheVolume #OceanNoise
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