Research Objectives:
The International Whaling Commission Southern Ocean Collaboration Program (IWCSOC) has been developed to provide a circum-Antarctic and multinational approach to investigating connections between cetacean ecology and the variability and dynamics of Antarctic ecosystems. The long term objective of the IWCSOC and the related ARP’s around the Antarctic (AAA) program is to investigate connections between cetaceans and variability in ecosystem processes at local, regional and circum-Antarctic scales by conducting fine scale ecological studies and developing a circum-Antarctic continuous acoustic monitoring system for cetaceans using traditional (visual survey, biopsy, individual photo identification) and novel (passive acoustics, sea ice habitat classification) research techniques.
Our This project’s initial approach involves participation in multidisciplinary and multinational research cruises using a combination of these techniques to compile basic seasonal distribution and acoustic presence data for each of the five antarctic oceanic regions. To this end team members have participated in US, German, Australian and UK Southern Ocean Global Ecosystems Dynamics Programs (SO GLOBEC) and in the Commission for the Convention on Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) programs in the Western Antarctic Peninsula, Weddell Sea, East Antarctica and the Scotia Sea, and with the U.S. Antarctic Slope Front (ANSLOPE) program in the Ross Sea.
While continuing the collaborative participation in multidisciplinary research, the investigators’ intent is to expand the research to areas where arrays of passive acoustic instruments can be deployed long-term, and where vessel time is available to carry out fine scale ecological experiments measuring cetacean distribution and movements, sea ice habitat, prey and oceanographic dynamics seasonally and interannually. This work will be focused in areas where long-term ecosystem data have been collected by other research programs, in order to build on, complement and expand existing work (i.e. East Antarctica Prydz Bay, Scotia Sea/Elephant Island and the Western Antarctic Peninsula.
The IWC SOC/AAA program has been structured to include a variety of novel and historical cetacean research methods whilst simultaneously developing the potential of the new year-round acoustic recording packages (ARP’s). While methodologically powerful, passive acoustic technology can currently provide data on call frequency, but cannot, when used remotely in the Antarctic, provide a reliable measure of relative abundance on any temporal or spatial scale, and does not allow an assessment of the number of individual whales calling at any one time, both critical elements in determining seasonal abundance. In order that this tool reaches its potential for application to cetacean conservation and management issues it is essential that means be developed to overcome this limitation as far as possible. Additionally, acoustic research needs to be partnered by studies to develop an ecological context for the analysis of acoustic data. For example, calling rates or spectra may vary with behaviour in response to changes in habitat characteristics. This can only be determined by ship-based research simultaneous with acoustic recordings.
Initially project team members will deploy a series of instruments and arrays in each of the six oceanic provinces of the Antarctic: the Indian Ocean, Pacific Ocean, Ross Sea, Amundsen-Bellingshausen Seas, Weddell Sea, and in the northern Antarctic Peninsula. The design of the arrays will result in data that can be used to: accurately position animals at time of call; track individual callers over short periods within a 100km radius from the center of the array; locate areas of seasonal high concentrations of a suite of species; and determine likely longitudinal movements. The project currently has single ARP’s deployed in the northern Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP), off the coast of East Antarctica near Casey and Mawson bases, and in the Ross Sea. The group has collaborative agreements for long-term deployments with visual and acoustic survey on cruises in these and other areas.
They will also conduct concurrent ecological studies around passive acoustic instruments using visual survey, biopsy, video, acoustic tagging and expendable sonobouys. The key objective of this work is to develop a broad set of categories of association between whale behaviour, environmental conditions and calling rates for each species. These will be continuously refined until researchers have a tool that will allow the interpretation of ARP data with remotely sensed environmental data to predict, link and extrapolate whale distribution, and causes at local, regional and circum-Antarctic scales. Broad categories of association will be developed that reflect the ecological significance of calling rates. To do this, researchers will locate concentrations of cetaceans, deploy acoustic tags, follow individuals, video group and individual behaviour while monitoring acoustically, biopsy calling animals and photo identify individuals to relate behaviour, genetic identity and ecological conditions to the passive acoustic data. Participation in large scale multidisciplinary surveys is an important component of the ecological work, for assessing potential array locations and providing the opportunity for integrated analysis of acoustic spectra and visual survey results with simultaneously collected data series for prey and ecosystem dynamics at regional scales.
The IWC SOCAAA is a core component of the Southern Ocean ICCED initiative, a joint venture in the Southern Ocean between GLOBEC and the global Integrated Marine Biogeochemistry and Ecosystem Research (IMBER) long term research program, due to commence in 2007.
