Sperm whale long-range echolocation sounds revealed by ANTARES, a deep-sea neutrino telescope

Andre M, Caballe A, Van Der Schaar M, Solsona A, Houegnigan L, Zaugg S, Sanchez AM, Castell JV, Sole M, Vila F, Djokic D, Adrian-Martinez S, Albert A, Anghinolfi M, Anton G, Ardid M, Aubert JJ, Avgitas T, Baret B, Barrios-Marti J, Basa S, Bertin V, Biagi S, Bormuth R, Bouwhuis MC, Bruijn R, Brunner J, Busto J, Capone A, Caramete L, Carr J, Celli S, Chiarusi T, Circella M, Coleiro A, Coniglione R, Costantini H, Coyle P, Creusot A, Deschamps A, De Bonis G, Distefano C, Di Palma I, Donzaud C, Dornic D, Drouhin D, Eberl T, El Bojaddaini I, Elsaesser D, Enzenhofer A, Fehn K, Felis I, Fusco LA, Galata S, Gay P, Geißelsöder S, Geyer K, Giordano V, Gleixner A, Glotin H, Gracia-Ruiz R, Graf K, Hallmann S, Van Haren H, Heijboer AJ, Hello Y, Hernandez-Rey JJ, Hößl J, Hofestädt J, Hugon CM, Illuminati G, James C, De Jong M, Jongen M, Kadler M, Kalekin O, Katz U, Kießling D, Kouchner A, Kreter M, Kreykenbohm I, Kulikovskiy V, Lachaud C, Lahmann R, Lefevre D, Leonora E, Loucatos S, Marcelin M, Margiotta A, Marinelli A, Martinez-Mora JA, Mathieu A, Melis K, Michael T, Migliozzi P, Moussa A, Mueller C, Nezri E, Pavalas GE, Pellegrino C, Perrina C, Piattelli P, Popa V, Pradier T, Racca C, Riccobene GM, Roensch K, Saldana M, Samtleben DFE, Sanguineti M, Sapienza P, Schnabel J, Schussler F, Seitz T, Sieger C, Spurio M, Stolarczyk T, Sanchez-Losa A, Taiuti M, Trovato A, Tselengidou M, Turpin D, Tonnis C, Vallage B, Vallee C, Van Elewyck V, Vivolo D, Wagner S, Wilms J, Zornoza JD, Zuniga J (2017)

Publication Status: Published

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2017

Journal

Publisher: NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP

Book Volume: 7

Article Number: ARTN 45517

DOI: 10.1038/srep45517

Abstract

Despite dedicated research has been carried out to adequately map the distribution of the sperm whale in the Mediterranean Sea, unlike other regions of the world, the species population status is still presently uncertain. The analysis of two years of continuous acoustic data provided by the ANTARES neutrino telescope revealed the year-round presence of sperm whales in the Ligurian Sea, probably associated with the availability of cephalopods in the region. The presence of the Ligurian Sea sperm whales was demonstrated through the real-time analysis of audio data streamed from a cabled-to-shore deep-sea observatory that allowed the hourly tracking of their long-range echolocation behaviour on the Internet. Interestingly, the same acoustic analysis indicated that the occurrence of surface shipping noise would apparently not condition the foraging behaviour of the sperm whale in the area, since shipping noise was almost always present when sperm whales were acoustically detected. The continuous presence of the sperm whale in the region confirms the ecological value of the Ligurian sea and the importance of ANTARES to help monitoring its ecosystems.

Authors with CRIS profile

Involved external institutions

Aix-Marseille University / Aix-Marseille Université France (FR) Polytechnic University of Catalonia / Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya Spain (ES) Polytechnic University of Valencia / Universidad Politécnica de Valencia Spain (ES) National Institute for Nuclear Physics / Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) Italy (IT) University of Paris 7 - Denis Diderot / Université Paris VII Denis Diderot France (FR) University of València / Universitat de València Spain (ES) Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg Germany (DE) Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ) Netherlands (NL) Université de Haute-Alsace (UHA) France (FR) National Institute for Subatomic Physics / Nationaal instituut voor subatomaire fysica (Nikhef) Netherlands (NL) Universidad de Cádiz (UCA) Spain (ES) Institute of Space Science (ISS) / Institutul de Științe Spațiale Romania (RO) Commissariat à l'énergie atomique France (FR) Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille (LAM) France (FR) Mohammed First University / Université Mohammed Premier / جامعة محمد الأول Morocco (MA) Université de Strasbourg (UDS) France (FR)

How to cite

APA:

Andre, M., Caballe, A., Van Der Schaar, M., Solsona, A., Houegnigan, L., Zaugg, S.,... Zuniga, J. (2017). Sperm whale long-range echolocation sounds revealed by ANTARES, a deep-sea neutrino telescope. Scientific Reports, 7. https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep45517

MLA:

Andre, Michel, et al. "Sperm whale long-range echolocation sounds revealed by ANTARES, a deep-sea neutrino telescope." Scientific Reports 7 (2017).

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