- On today’s episode of the Mongabay Newscast, we take a look at two stories that show how bioacoustics research is helping us better understand the lives of marine mammals — and we take a listen to some of the recordings informing that research.
- Our first guest is Erin Ross-Marsh, the lead researcher behind a study of humpback whales at the Vema Seamount in the South Atlantic Ocean off the coast of South Africa. Ross-Marsh tells us about the study’s finding that these humpbacks were making gunshot calls, a type of non-song call that was previously unknown in these particular whales, and plays some humpback songs, non-song calls, and gunshot calls for us to listen to.
- We also speak today with Sarah Trabue, a research assistant with the Wildlife Conservation Society who is the lead author of a recently published paper detailing the findings of a bioacoustic study of bottlenose dolphins in and around New York Harbor. Trabue tells us what the study reveals about dolphin behavior in the highly trafficked waters around New York City and plays for us some of the dolphin vocalizations recorded as part of the study.
Today we’re looking at two stories that show how bioacoustics research is helping us better understand the lives of marine mammals — and we take a listen to some of the recordings informing that research.
Listen here:
We’re big fans of bioacoustics here at the Mongabay Newscast — it’s a fascinating way to learn about wildlife and nature. Two recent studies that caught our eye help show why it’s such an exciting — and growing — field of inquiry.
Our first guest is Erin Ross-Marsh, the lead researcher behind a study of humpback whales at the Vema Seamount in the South Atlantic Ocean off the coast of South Africa. Ross-Marsh tells us about the study’s finding that these humpbacks were making gunshot calls, a type of non-song call that was previously unknown in these particular whales, and plays some humpback songs, non-song calls, and gunshot calls for us to listen to.
We also speak today with Sarah Trabue, a research assistant with the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Ocean Giants Program who is the lead author of a recently published paper detailing the findings of a bioacoustic study of bottlenose dolphins in the New York-New Jersey Harbor Estuary. Trabue tells us what the study reveals about dolphin behavior in the highly trafficked waters of New York Harbor and plays for us some of the dolphin vocalizations recorded as part of the study.
Further reading:
• WCS: “The New York – New Jersey Harbor Estuary is a Dining Hotspot During Summer and Autumn Months for Bottlenose Dolphins”
• Trabue, S. G., Rekdahl, M. L., King, C. D., Strindberg, S., Adamczak, S. K., & Rosenbaum, H. C. (2022). Spatiotemporal trends in bottlenose dolphin foraging behavior and relationship to environmental variables in a highly urbanized estuary. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 690, 219-235. doi:10.3354/meps14041
• “What’s popping? Humpbacks off South Africa, new acoustic study finds” (9 May 2022)
• Ross-Marsh, E. C., Elwen, S. H., Fearey, J., Thompson, K. F., Maack, T., & Gridley, T. (2022). Detection of humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) non-song vocalizations around the Vema Seamount, southeast Atlantic Ocean. JASA Express Letters, 2(4), 041201. doi:10.1121/10.0010072
Further listening:
• “Podcast: Singing and whistling cetaceans of southern Africa revealed by bioacoustics” (19 August 2020)
• “Podcast: Humpback whales across the Pacific Ocean are singing the same song” (17 September 2019)
• “Audio: Listen to the first-ever recordings of right whales breaking into song” (9 July 2019)
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Follow Mike Gaworecki on Twitter: @mikeg2001
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