Marine Mammal Studies at the Southern California Offshore Range (SCORE)

Cuvier's beaked whales on a very calm day and rainy January day at SCORE.  Photo by Erin Falcone, 2011

NEW: Report from 2010 – 2011 now available

Cascadia began working with scientists from the Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC), Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO), and the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) on a collaborative visual-acoustic study of marine mammals at SCORE, a naval training area off the coast of southern California, in August 2006. Since that time we have conducted several short surveys annually, with the goal of collecting data year-round in this important region for both marine mammals and the navy. Starting in 2009, the regional focus of this study expanded to include not only the SCORE range, but also other operational areas throughout the Southern California Bight, known collectively as SOCAL. This project is supported by the US Navy’s N45 Environmental Readiness Division.

During these surveys, a team of acoustic observers at the Range Operations Center in San Diego uses real-time acoustic data from the broad array of bottom-mounted hydrophones in the San Nicolas Basin west of San Clemente Island (the Southern California Anti-Submarine Warfare Range, or SOAR) to detect and localize vocalizing marine mammals. They then pass this information to the boats so that they may approach the animals to confirm their species and collect data, photographs, and tissue samples. Beginning in 2008, we expanded our effort to include LIMPET satellite tag deployments (Andrews et al. 2008) on several species so that we could remotely monitor the movements and, in some cases, dive behavior of individuals for periods up to several months.

Although we are interested in all species encountered, we are particularly focused on beaked whales in this area due to their sensitivity to underwater sound sources in other parts of the world. Understanding how these animals use the SOAR range, which appears to be prime habitat for beaked whales despite its heavy sonar use, may contribute to the mitigation of sonar impact in other regions where beaked whales and training exercises are likely to co-occur. Articles and updates summarizing our work with these species are available below.

Over the course of this ongoing study, we have had numerous productive encounters with Cuvier’s beaked whales during periods of calm winds, and as of October 2011 we have deployed eight satellite tags on this species, six of which provide data on diving behavior in addition to movement patterns. We have also deployed tags on fin whales, Risso's dolphins, and bottlenose dolphins in and around the SCORE range, all of which are providing the first insights into habitat use and movements for these species in the Southern California Bight. Analyses are underway to compare the movements and, when available, dive behavior of animals to coincident sonar use during naval exercises.

Satellite-linked dive data from an adult male Cuvier's beaked whale

This study is also developing the first regional photo-ID studies of Cuvier's beaked whales and fin whales, and is contributing photos of bottlenose and Risso's dolphins to collaborators at SIO and Southwest Fisheries Science Center for assessments of these species.

Additional links to supplementary materials...

Summary of October 2007 test

Summary of August and October 2008 tests

Summary of July 2009 test

Summary of 2010 surveys

 

For more information on this project write to: efalcone (at) cascadiaresearch.org or gschorr (at) cascadiaresearch.org

Updated October 2011.

Photographs on this page (c) Cascadia Research, use only with permission

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References

Andrews, R.D., R.L. Pitman and L.T. Ballance. 2008. Satellite tracking reveals distinct movement patterns for Type B and Type C killer whales in the southern Ross Sea, Antarctica. Polar Biology. DOI 10.1007/s00300-008-0487-z. Download PDF copy