PROJECTS

The field team consisting of members from Duke University and Syracuse University conducted field work out of Fernandina Beach, Florida during February 2014, February-March 2015, February-March 2016, and February 2017. Through this research, 16 right whales have been tagged, the majority of which have been mother-calf pairs, leading to new insights on their movements, call types and rates, and dive behavior in the Southeast calving area. In addition, work and analyses were undertaken focused on sound propagation modeling, creating and testing algorithms for detection and classification of right whale calls, and analyses of behavioral ontogeny and individual distinctiveness of right whale calls.

Dtag deployment locations 2014-2017

Summary of field days, sightings, and Dtags deployed 2014-2017

Overall Findings

Diving behavior: Researchers analyzed existing DTAG data from January-March 2006 and 2014-2016, which included 15 tag deployments. They found that whales spent an average of 59.1 percent (+/-16) of time at depths below 2.5 meters, which is below the depth of visual survey method detection. Juveniles spent the most time below this depth than other age classes (Nowacek, Parks, and Read 2017). Whales of all ages and sex classes spend majority of their time outside the visual detection range of vessel or aerial surveys, which impacts detectability on calving grounds. These data have recently been summarized and published (Dombrowski et al. In press).  Another diving behavior related effort to be summarized is the tag attached to an entangled whale.  In February 2014 the Duke team working on this project was well offshore to survey the area designed for the then future underwater training range. The team spotted a traveling right whale, which, upon closer inspection and with the help of the aerial survey that was working in concert with the tagging effort, was seen to be carrying some fishing gear.  A DTAG was successfully attached to the flank of the whale, and the data from that tag were used in an analysis of the kinematics and swimming efficiency of this and another entangled whale (van der Hoop et al. 2017). 

Acoustic analysis: Using acoustic data from DTAG deployments from 2014-2016, Syracuse University researchers have recorded 85 hours of acoustic data from right whales on calving grounds. Researchers identified that the upcall production rates, the primary call used for right whale passive acoustic monitoring (Van Parijs et al. 2009), is much higher for a pregnant female than lactating females, first reported in Nowacek, Parks, and Read (2018). These recordings have also identified novel, previously undescribed call types produced by mother-calf pairs on the calving grounds, which are low amplitude and not detectable unless in close proximity to the whales. The calls identify a new mode of communication between mothers and calves that could be impacted by noise in the environment (Parks et al. 2019a). Other acoustic findings from the project include: the general acoustic environment of the whales in this area (Parks et al. 2017); the presence of individual identity information in upcalls (McCordic et al. 2016); general calling behavior of whales while in the area (Parks et al. 2019b).  Finally, the acoustic data from this project have also been used in wider analyses of right whale vocal behavior (Root-Gutteridge et al. 2018).