Methods are developed for estimating the size/density of cetacean populations using data from a set of fixed passive acoustic sensors. The methods convert the number of detected acoustic cues into animal density by accounting for (i) the probability of detecting cues, (ii) the rate at which animals produce cues, and (iii) the proportion of false positive detections. Additional information is often required for estimation of these quantities, for example, from an acoustic tag applied to a sample of animals. Methods are illustrated with a case study: estimation of Blainville’s beaked whale density over a 6day period in spring 2005, using an 82 hydrophone wide-baseline array located in the Tongue of the Ocean, Bahamas. To estimate the required quantities, additional data are used from digital acoustic tags, attached to five whales over 21 deep dives, where cues recorded on some of the dives are associated with those received on the fixed hydrophones. Estimated density was 25.3 or 22.5 animals/1000km2, depending on assumptions about false positive detections, with 95% confidence intervals 17.3–36.9 and 15.4–32.9. These methods are potentially applicable to a wide variety of marine and terrestrial species that are hard to survey using conventional visual methods.

1.
Anderson
,
D. R.
(
2001
). “
The need to get the basics right in wildlife field studies
,”
Wild. Soc. Bull.
29
,
1294
1297
.
2.
Anderson
,
D. R.
(
2003
). “
Response to Engeman: Index values rarely constitute reliable information
,”
Wild. Soc. Bull.
31
,
288
291
.
3.
Au
,
W. W. L.
,
Mobley
,
J.
,
Burgess
,
W. C.
,
Lammers
,
M. O.
, and
Nachtigall
,
P. E.
(
2000
). “
Seasonal and diurnal trends of chorusing humpback whales wintering in waters off western Maui
,”
Marine Mammal Sci.
16
,
530
544
.
4.
Aubauer
,
R.
,
Lammers
,
M. O.
, and
Au
,
W. W. L.
(
2000
). “
One-hydrophone method of estimating distance and depth of phonating dolphins in shallow water
,”
J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
107
,
2744
2749
.
5.
Baird
,
R. W.
,
Webster
,
D. L.
,
Schorr
,
G. S.
,
Mcsweeney
,
D. J.
, and
Barlow
,
J.
(
2008
). “
Diel variation in beaked whale diving behavior
,”
Marine Mammal Sci.
24
,
630
642
.
6.
Barlow
,
J.
, and
Gisiner
,
R.
(
2006
). “
Mitigating, monitoring and assessing the effects of anthropogenic sound on beaked whales
,”
J. Cetacean Res. Manage.
7
,
239
249
.
7.
Barlow
,
J.
, and
Taylor
,
B.
(
2005
). “
Estimates of sperm whale abundance in the northeastern temperate Pacific from a combined acoustic and visual survey
,”
Marine Mammal Sci.
21
,
429
445
.
8.
Barlow
,
J.
,
Ferguson
,
M. C.
,
Perrin
,
W. F.
,
Ballance
,
L.
,
Gerrodette
,
T.
,
Joyce
,
G.
,
Macleod
,
C. D.
,
Mullin
,
K.
,
Palka
,
D. L.
, and
Waring
,
G.
(
2006
). “
Abundance and densities of beaked and bottlenose whales (family Ziphiidae)
,”
J. Cetacean Res. Manage.
7
,
263
270
.
9.
Baumgartner
,
M. F.
, and
Fratantoni
,
D. M.
(
2008
). “
Diel periodicity in both sei whale vocalization rates and the vertical migration of their copepod prey observed from ocean gliders
,”
Limnol. Oceanogr.
53
,
2197
2209
.
10.
Buckland
,
S. T.
(
2006
). “
Point transect surveys for songbirds: Robust methodologies
,”
Auk
123
,
345
345
.
11.
Buckland
,
S. T.
,
Anderson
,
D. R.
,
Burnham
,
K. P.
,
Laake
,
J. L.
,
Borchers
,
D. L.
, and
Thomas
,
L.
(
2001
).
Introduction to Distance Sampling: Estimating Abundance of Biological Populations
(
Oxford University Press
,
Oxford
).
12.
Buckland
,
S. T.
,
Anderson
,
D. R.
,
Burnham
,
K. P.
,
Laake
,
J. L.
,
Borchers
,
D.
, and
Thomas
,
L.
(
2004
).
Advanced Distance Sampling
(
Oxford University Press
,
Oxford
).
13.
Charif
,
R. A.
,
Clapham
,
P. J.
, and
Clark
,
C. W.
(
2001
). “
Acoustic detections of singing humpback whales in deep waters off the British Isles
,”
Marine Mammal Sci.
17
,
751
768
.
14.
Claridge
,
D. E.
(
2006
). “
Fine-scale distribution and habitat selection of beaked whales
,” MS thesis,
University of Aberdeen
, Scotland.
15.
DiMarzio
,
N.
,
Moretti
,
D.
,
Ward
,
J.
,
Morrissey
,
R.
,
Jarvis
,
S.
,
Izzi
,
A. M.
,
Johnson
,
M.
,
Tyack
,
P.
, and
Hansen
,
A.
(
2008
). “
Passive acoustic measurement of dive vocal behavior and group size of Blainville’s beaked whale (Mesoplodon densirostris) in the Tongue of the Ocean (TOTO)
,”
Can. Acoust.
36
,
166
173
.
16.
Douglas
,
L. A.
,
Dawson
,
S. M.
, and
Jaquet
,
N.
(
2005
). “
Click rates and silences of sperm whales at Kaikoura, New Zealand
,”
J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
118
,
523
529
.
17.
Efford
,
M. G.
,
Borchers
,
D. L.
, and
Byrom
,
A. E.
(
2008
). “
Density estimation by spatially explicit capture-recapture: Likelihood-based methods
,” in
Modeling Demographic Processes in Marked Populations
, edited by
D. L.
Thomson
,
E. G.
Cooch
, and
M. J.
Conroy
(
Springer
,
New York
), pp.
255
269
.
18.
Efron
,
B.
, and
Tibshirani
,
R.
(
1993
).
An Introduction to the Bootstrap
(
Chapman and Hall
,
London
/
CRC
,
New York
).
19.
Freitag
,
L. E.
, and
Tyack
,
P. L.
(
1993
). “
Passive acoustic localization of the Atlantic bottlenose dolphin using whistles and echolocation clicks
,”
J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
93
,
2197
2205
.
20.
Gatz
,
D. F.
, and
Smith
,
L.
(
1995
). “
The standard error of a weighted mean concentration—I. Bootstrapping vs other methods
,”
Atmos. Environ.
29
,
1185
1193
.
21.
Hastie
,
G. D.
,
Swift
,
R. J.
,
Gordon
,
J. C.
,
Slesser
,
G.
, and
Turrell
,
W. R.
(
2003
). “
Sperm whale distribution and seasonal density in the Faroe Shetland Channel
,”
J. Cetacean Res. Manage.
5
,
247
252
.
22.
Johnson
,
M. P.
, and
Tyack
,
P. L.
(
2003
). “
A digital acoustic recording tag for measuring the response of wild marine mammals to sound
,”
IEEE J. Ocean. Eng.
28
,
3
12
.
23.
Johnson
,
M.
,
Madsen
,
P. T.
,
Zimmer
,
W. M. X.
,
de Soto
,
N. A.
, and
Tyack
,
P. L.
(
2004
). “
Beaked whales echolocate on prey
,”
Proc. R. Soc. London, Ser. B
271
,
S383
S386
.
24.
Johnson
,
M.
,
Madsen
,
P. T.
,
Zimmer
,
W. M. X.
,
de Soto
,
N. A.
, and
Tyack
,
P. L.
(
2006
). “
Foraging Blainville’s beaked whales (Mesoplodon densirostris) produce distinct click types matched to different phases of echolocation
,”
J. Exp. Biol.
209
,
5038
5050
.
25.
Lewis
,
T.
,
Gillespie
,
D.
,
Lacey
,
C.
,
Matthews
,
J.
,
Danbolt
,
M.
,
Leaper
,
R.
,
McLanaghan
,
R.
, and
Moscrop
,
A.
(
2007
). “
Sperm whale abundance estimates from acoustic surveys of the Ionian Sea and Straits of Sicily in 2003
,”
J. Mar. Biol. Assoc. U.K.
87
,
353
357
.
26.
McDonald
,
M. A.
, and
Fox
,
C. G.
(
1999
). “
Passive acoustic methods applied to fin whale population density estimation
,”
J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
105
,
2643
2651
.
27.
Mellinger
,
D. K.
,
Nieukirk
,
S. L.
,
Matsumoto
,
H.
,
Heimlich
,
S. L.
,
Dziak
,
R. P.
,
Haxel
,
J.
,
Fowler
,
M.
,
Meinig
,
C.
, and
Miller
,
H. V.
(
2007a
). “
Seasonal occurrence of North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) vocalizations at two sites on the Scotian Shelf
,”
Marine Mammal Sci.
23
,
856
867
.
28.
Mellinger
,
D. K.
,
Stafford
,
K. M.
,
Moore
,
S. E.
,
Dziak
,
R. P.
, and
Matsumoto
,
H.
(
2007b
). “
An overview of fixed passive acoustic observation methods for cetaceans
,”
Oceanogr.
20
,
36
45
.
29.
Moore
,
S. E.
,
Stafford
,
K. M.
,
Mellinger
,
D. K.
, and
Hildebrand
,
J. A.
(
2006
). “
Listening for large whales in the offshore waters of Alaska
,”
BioScience
56
,
49
55
.
30.
Moretti
,
D.
,
DiMarzio
,
N.
,
Morrissey
,
R.
,
Ward
,
J.
, and
Jarvis
,
S.
(
2006
). “
Estimating the density of Blainville’s beaked whale (Mesoplodon densirostris) in the Tongue of the Ocean (TOTO) using passive acoustics
,” in
Proceedings of the Oceans’06 MTS/IEEE-Boston
,
Boston, MA
.
31.
Morrissey
,
R. P.
,
Ward
,
J.
,
DiMarzio
,
N.
,
Jarvis
,
S.
, and
Moretti
,
D. J.
(
2006
). “
Passive acoustic detection and localization of sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) in the tongue of the ocean
,”
Appl. Acoust.
67
,
1091
1105
.
32.
Payne
,
K. B.
,
Thompson
,
M.
, and
Kramer
,
L.
(
2003
). “
Elephant calling patterns as indicators of group size and composition: The basis for an acoustic monitoring system
,”
Afr. J. Ecol.
41
,
99
107
.
33.
Powell
,
L. A.
(
2007
). “
Approximating variance of demographic parameters using the delta method: A reference for avian biologists
,”
Condor
109
,
949
954
.
34.
R Development Core Team
(
2008
). “
R: A language and environment for statistical computing
,” URL: http://www.R-project.org (Last viewed March 2009).
35.
Seber
,
G. A. F.
(
1982
).
The Estimation of Animal Abundance
, 2nd ed. (
Griffin
,
London
).
36.
Skellam
,
J. G.
(
1958
). “
The mathematical foundations underlying the use of line transects in animal ecology
,”
Biometrics
14
,
385
400
.
37.
Stafford
,
K.
,
Mellinger
,
D.
,
Moore
,
S.
, and
Fox
,
C.
(
2007
). “
Seasonal variability and detection range modeling of baleen whale calls in the Gulf of Alaska, 1999–2002
,”
J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
12
,
3378
3390
.
38.
Thomas
,
L.
,
Laake
,
J. L.
,
Strindberg
,
S.
,
Marques
,
F. F. C.
,
Buckland
,
S. T.
,
Borchers
,
D. L.
,
Anderson
,
D. R.
,
Burnham
,
K. P.
,
Hedley
,
S. L.
,
Pollard
,
J. H.
,
Bishop
,
J. R. B.
, and
Marques
,
T. A.
(
2006
). “
Distance 5.0
,” Research Unit for Wildlife Population Assessment, University of St. Andrews, UK. http://www.ruwpa.st-and.ac.uk/distance/(Last viewed March, 2009).
39.
Tiemann
,
C. O.
,
Porter
,
M. B.
, and
Frazer
,
L. N.
(
2004
). “
Localization of marine mammals near Hawaii using an acoustic propagation model
,”
J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
115
,
2834
2843
.
46.
Tyack
,
P. L.
,
Johnson
,
M.
,
Soto
,
N. A.
,
Sturlese
,
A.
, and
Madsen
,
P. T.
(
2006
). “
Extreme diving behaviour of beaked whales
,”
J. Exp. Biol.
209
,
4238
4253
.
40.
Ward
,
J.
,
Morrissey
,
R.
,
Moretti
,
D.
,
DiMarzio
,
N.
,
Jarvis
,
S.
,
Johnson
,
M.
,
Tyack
,
P.
, and
White
,
C.
(
2008
). “
Passive acoustic detection and localization of Mesoplodon densirostris (Blainville’s beaked whale) vocalizations using distributed bottom-mounted hydrophones in conjunction with a digital tag (DTag) recording
,”
Can. Acoust.
36
,
60
66
.
41.
Whitehead
,
H.
, and
Weilgart
,
L.
(
1990
). “
Click rates from sperm whales
,”
J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
87
,
1798
1806
.
42.
Wiggins
,
S. M.
,
McDonald
,
M. A.
,
Munger
,
L. A.
,
Hildebrand
,
J. A.
, and
Moore
,
S. E.
(
2004
). “
Waveguide propagation allows range estimates for North Pacific right whales in the Bering Sea
,”
Can. Acoust.
32
,
146
154
.
43.
Wood
,
S. N.
(
2006
).
Generalized Additive Models: An Introduction With R
(
CRC
,
Boca Raton, FL
/
Chapman and Hall
,
London
).
44.
Zimmer
,
W. M. X.
,
Johnson
,
M. P.
,
Madsen
,
P. T.
, and
Tyack
,
P. L.
(
2005
). “
Echolocation clicks of free-ranging Cuvier’s beaked whales (Ziphius cavirostris)
,”
J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
117
,
3919
3927
.
45.
Zimmer
,
W. M.
,
Harwood
,
J.
,
Tyack
,
P. L.
,
Johnson
,
M. P.
, and
Madsen
,
P. T.
(
2008
). “
Passive acoustic detection of deep diving beaked whales
,”
J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
124
,
2823
2832
.
You do not currently have access to this content.