Dear MARMAM colleagues I am happy to share our new paper about harbour porpoise responses to a seal scarer (acoustic harassment device) in the wild:
Elmegaard, SL, Teilmann, J, Rojano-Doñate, L, Brennecke, D, Mikkelsen, L, Balle, JD, Gosewinkel, U, Kyhn, LA, Tønnesen, P, Wahlberg, M, Ruser, A, Siebert, U, Madsen, PT (2023) Wild harbour porpoises startle and flee at low received levels from acoustic harassment device. Scientific Reports, 13:16691. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-43453-8 In this paper we present the responses of six tagged porpoises exposed to a seal scarer (acoustic harassment device) in the wild. The porpoises respond to the exposure from up to 7 km away by startling, fleeing, altering echolocation behaviour as well as tachycardia. We conclude that in order to minimize habitat degradation and disproportionate adverse effects on porpoises, the source level of seal scarers should be reduced when used for mitigating offshore construction noise effects on porpoise hearing. You can find the open access paper here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-43453-8 You are more than welcome to contact me with any questions. Best wishes Siri Elmegaard, ph.d. [email protected]
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