Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
Hopkins Marine Station, Stanford University, Pacific Grove, CA, USA.
Proc Biol Sci. 2018 Feb 14;285(1872). doi: 10.1098/rspb.2017.2314.
Shipping is the dominant marine anthropogenic noise source in the world's oceans, yet we know little about vessel encounter rates, exposure levels and behavioural reactions for cetaceans in the wild, many of which rely on sound for foraging, communication and social interactions. Here, we used animal-borne acoustic tags to measure vessel noise exposure and foraging efforts in seven harbour porpoises in highly trafficked coastal waters. Tagged porpoises encountered vessel noise 17-89% of the time and occasional high-noise levels coincided with vigorous fluking, bottom diving, interrupted foraging and even cessation of echolocation, leading to significantly fewer prey capture attempts at received levels greater than 96 dB re 1 µPa (16 kHz third-octave). If such exposures occur frequently, porpoises, which have high metabolic requirements, may be unable to compensate energetically with negative long-term fitness consequences. That shipping noise disrupts foraging in the high-frequency-hearing porpoise raises concerns that other toothed whale species may also be affected.
航运是世界海洋中占主导地位的人为海洋噪声源，但我们对野生动物中船只相遇率、暴露水平和行为反应知之甚少，许多海洋生物依赖声音进行觅食、交流和社会互动。在这里，我们使用动物携带的声学标签来测量在高度繁忙的沿海水域中的 7 只港湾鼠海豚的船只噪声暴露和觅食努力。标记的鼠海豚有 17-89%的时间会遇到船只噪声，偶尔出现的高噪声水平与剧烈的摆尾、底部潜水、觅食中断甚至停止回声定位同时发生，导致在接收到大于 96 dB re 1 µPa（16 kHz 三分之一倍频程）的水平时，猎物捕获尝试明显减少。如果这种暴露经常发生，那么代谢需求较高的鼠海豚可能无法通过负面的长期健康后果来进行能量补偿。航运噪音干扰了高频听力鼠海豚的觅食，这让人担忧其他齿鲸物种也可能受到影响。
