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Oceans of noise - Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society

Oceans of noise - Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society

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• Migrating gray whales disturbed by vessels exhale under water, only exposing theirblowholes to inhale. This behaviour is also observed when animals are threatened by thepresence <strong>of</strong> killer whales.Ref: Hubbs 1965; Hubbs <strong>and</strong> Hubbs 1967.Location: East Pacific• During a gray whale migration, whales changed their course at a distance <strong>of</strong> 200-300m toavoid boat vessels in their path.Ref: Wyrick 1954.Fin whales, Balaenoptera physalusLocation: Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA• Fin whales displayed reduced inter-surfacing <strong>and</strong> dive intervals <strong>and</strong> fewer exhalations persurfacing when boat traffic was nearby.Ref: Young 1989; Stone et al. 1992.Location: St. Lawrence Estuary, Canada• Fin whales changed direction to avoid shipping traffic at distances <strong>of</strong> 1km or greater.• In addition the whales increased their swimming speed <strong>and</strong> the dive duration.• Reactions were stronger when the shipping traffic made sudden changes in speed <strong>of</strong> direction.Ref: Edds <strong>and</strong> MacFarlane 1987.Location: Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA• Fin whales reacted strongly to boats producing <strong>noise</strong> levels <strong>of</strong> a similar frequency to thoseused by the fin whales (15-100Hz).Ref: Watkins 1986.Location: Prince William Sound, Alaska, USA• Fin whales ignored whale-watching boats that remained more than 100m away.• If boats approached slowly at a steady speed no reaction was noted by fin whales.157

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