TY - JOUR
TI - Vessel noise cuts down communication space for vocalizing fish and marine mammals
AU - Putland, R
AU - Merchant, N
AU - Farcas, A
AU - Radford, C
T2 - Global Change Biology
AB - Anthropogenic noise across the world's oceans threatens the ability of vocalizing marine species to communicate. Some species vocalize at key life stages or whilst foraging, and disruption to the acoustic habitat at these times could lead to adverse consequences at the population level. To investigate the risk of these impacts, we investigated the effect of vessel noise on the communication space of the Bryde's whale Balaenoptera edeni, an endangered species which vocalizes at low frequencies, and bigeye Pempheris adspersa, a nocturnal fish species which uses contact calls to maintain group cohesion while foraging. By combining long‐term acoustic monitoring data with AIS vessel‐tracking data and acoustic propagation modelling, the impact of vessel noise on their communication space was determined. Routine vessel passages cut down communication space by up to 61.5% for bigeyes and 87.4% for Bryde's whales. This influence of vessel noise on communication space exceeded natural variability for between 3.9 and 18.9% of the monitoring period. Additionally, during the closest point of approach of a large commercial vessel, 
DA - 2017/11//
PY - 2017
VL - 24
IS - 4
SP - 1708
EP - 1721
UR - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/gcb.13996
DO - 10.1111/gcb.13996
LA - English
KW - Noise
KW - Pelagic Fish
KW - Marine Mammals
KW - Fish
KW - Cetaceans
ER -