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Acoustic Monitoring of Cetaceans 2026

North Pacific

Acoustic Monitoring of Cetaceans 2026

Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM) is a powerful method for surveying marine mammal distributions, migratory timings, and behavior patterns. By using deep-ocean hydrophone arrays, researchers capture vocalizations across large oceanic sectors without disrupting animal behavior.

Acoustic arrays

The research network includes deep-sea hydrophone arrays located at key submarine intersections:

  • Point Reyes Escarpment Station: Monitoring deep-water migrations and shipping lane noise overlap.
  • Monterey Canyon Array: Cataloging resident foraging clicks and low-frequency vocalizations.

Key findings

  1. Migratory Shifts: Humpback whale song detections in late winter indicate extended residences on feeding grounds, possibly linked to shifting prey densities.
  2. Noise Masking: Ocean shipping noise below 100 Hz overlaps with blue whale vocal ranges, reducing effective communication distances by up to 60% in heavy traffic corridors.
  3. Daily Cycle: Foraging clicks of odontocetes (toothed whales) peak between 22:00 and 02:00, matching the vertical migration of prey species.

Sources (1)

Every claim traces to one of the citations below. Anything that could not be sourced was left out.

  1. [1]
    Acoustic Detection and Classification of Blue and Humpback WhalesAccessed 2026-06-13

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