Effects of vessel traffic and underwater noise on the movement, behaviour and vocalisations of bottlenose dolphins in an urbanised estuary.

ABSTRACT:

Abstarct

The potential disturbance of dolphins from tourism boats has been widely discussed in the literature, in terms of both physical vessel presence and associated underwater noise. However, less attention has been paid to the potential impact of non-tourism vessels, despite these being much more widespread and occurring in greater numbers throughout coastal dolphin habitats. The Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin (T. aduncus) community using the Fremantle Inner Harbour, Western Australia, is exposed to high levels of vessel traffic. To investigate whether behavioural responses could be occurring, a non-invasive combination of visual and acoustic monitoring was conducted using a theodolite and an autonomous acoustic logger. Dolphins significantly increased their average movement s

SUBMITTER: Marley SA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5647363 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature