Whales of Summer
June 10, 2024
In the mid-Atlantic, baleen whale sightings typically occur during the colder months, with peak activity in December and January. Sightings of humpback and right whales usually decrease by late March through April. While occasional baleen whale sightings, particularly of fin whales, happen during warmer months, large groups are uncommon as summer approaches. Pelagic surveys during this time often focus on odontocetes like sperm whales and beaked whales.
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Great Day for a Mid-Atlantic Offshore Survey
April 20, 2015
Pelagic cetaceans and sea turtle sightings.
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Complete
Assessment of Marine Mammal Vocal Response to Sonar
Project Objectives
Develop analytic methods to evaluate the vocal response of odontocetes and mysticetes to sonar from navy training activities
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Complete
Occurrence, Distribution, and Density of Marine Mammals Near Naval Station Norfolk and Virginia Beach
Project Objectives
Assess occurrence, seasonality, and abundance of Tursiops in the coastal waters of Hampton Roads military installations
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Complete
Occurrence, Ecology, and Behavior of Deep-diving Odontocetes
Project Objectives
Establish behavioral baseline and foraging ecology. Assess behavioral response to acoustic stimuli and Navy training activities
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Current
Marine Mammal Sightings During CalCOFI Cruises
Project Objectives
Determine what species and populations of marine mammals are present in Southern California and estimate the abundance and density across seasons
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Current
Mid-Atlantic Offshore Cetacean Study
Project Objectives
Assess occurrence, habitat use, and baseline behavior of cetaceans in the offshore and continental shelf break region of the VACAPES OPAREA
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Date Published:
  • January 1, 2018

Passive acoustic monitoring was conducted using High-frequency Acoustic Recording Packages (HARPs) deployed in waters offshore of Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida with support from the US Navy during 2016 - 2017. The HARPs recorded underwater sounds between 10 Hz and 100 kHz. Data analysis consisted of analyst scans of long-term spectral averages (LTSAs) and spectrograms, and automated computer algorithm detection when possible. Three frequency bands were analyzed for marine mammal vocalizations and anthropogenic sounds: (1) Lowfrequency, between 10-1000 Hz, (2) Mid-frequency, between 1,000-5,000 Hz, and (3) Highfrequency, between 1-100 kHz.

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  • 5,208.04 KB
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Date Published:
  • July 30, 2009

In support of the U.S. Navy’s (Navy) Marine Mammal Monitoring Plan (M3P) in the Southern California Range Complex (SOCAL) (DoN 2009), aerial surveys were conducted by Marine Mammal Research Consultants (MMRC) and Smultea Environmental Sciences (SES) to monitor marine mammals and sea turtles (MM/ST) during June and July 2009 in the SOCAL area.

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  • 4,717.48 KB
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Effects of duty-cycled passive acoustic recordings on detecting the presence of beaked whales in the northwest Atlantic. Stanistreet, J.E., D.P. Nowacek, A.J. Read, S. Baumann-Pickering, H.B. Moors-Murphy, and S.M. Van Parijs. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. 2026. 140(1):EL31-EL37
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Date Published:
  • March 2, 2026

This study investigated the effects of using duty-cycled passive acoustic recordings to monitor the daily presence of beaked whale species at three locations in the northwest Atlantic. Continuous acoustic records were subsampled to simulate duty cycles of 50%, 25%, and 10% and cycle period durations from 10 to 60 min. Short, frequent listening periods were most effective for assessing the daily presence of beaked whales. Furthermore, subsampling at low duty cycles led to consistently greater underestimation of Mesoplodon species than either Cuvier's beaked whales or northern bottlenose whales, leading to a potential bias in estimation of relative species occurrence.

Publication:Ocean:Region:Species:Methods:
Using passive acoustic monitoring to document the distribution of beaked whale species in the western North Atlantic Ocean. Stanistreet, J.E., D.P. Nowacek, S. Baumann-Pickering, J. Bell, D.M. Cholewiak, J.A. Hildebrand, L.E.W. Hodge, H. Moors-Murphy, S.M. Van Parijs, A.J. Read. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences. 2017. 74(12): 2098-2109. https://doi.org/10.1139/cjfas-2016-0503
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Date Published:
  • December 1, 2017

Little is known about the ecology of many beaked whale species, despite concerns raised by mass strandings linked to certain sources of anthropogenic noise. Here, we used passive acoustic monitoring to examine spatial and temporal patterns in beaked whale occurrence at six locations along the continental slope in the western North Atlantic Ocean.

Publication:Ocean:Region:Species:Methods:
Monitoring the acoustic ecology of the shelf break of Georges Bank, Northwestern Atlantic Ocean: new approaches to visualizing complex acoustic data. Weiss, S.G., D. Cholewiak, K.E. Frasier, J.S. Trickey, S. Baumann-Pickering, J.A. Hildebrand, and S.M. Van Parijs. Marine Policy. 2021. Volume 130. DOI: 10.1016/j.marpol.2021.104570
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Date Published:
  • August 1, 2021

This study aims to assess the co-occurrence of cetaceans and anthropogenic activities, presenting simple and accessible visualizations of the temporal and spectral overlap.

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