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ESR 20:271-282 (2013)  -  DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/esr00495

Acoustic alarms elicit only subtle responses in the behaviour of tropical coastal dolphins in Queensland, Australia

Alvaro Berg Soto1,*, Daniele Cagnazzi2, Yvette Everingham1, Guido J. Parra3,4, Michael Noad5, Helene Marsh

1James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia
2Southern Cross University, Lismore, New South Wales 2480, Australia
3Cetacean Ecology, Behaviour and Evolution Lab, School of Biological Science, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia 5001, Australia
4South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI), Aquatic Science, 2 Hamra Avenue, West Beach, South Australia 5024
5University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia

ABSTRACT: Incidental bycatch in gill nets is the most serious of the global threats to marine mammals. Consequently, many management agencies wish to implement practical and efficient bycatch mitigation systems that both protect species of conservation concern and are readily adopted by fishermen. Australian snubfin Orcaella heinsohni and humpback dolphins Sousa chinensis occur in small fragmented populations along most of the remote coast of subtropical and tropical Australia, where they are caught in gillnet fisheries operated from small vessels. We experimentally investigated whether a commercially available acoustic alarm modified the behaviour of each of these species in the absence of a net. The movements and behaviour of both species changed subtly when the pingers were active, but the likelihood of the animals leaving an area was not significantly different from the controls. Our results suggest that this technological approach may not be effective in reducing the bycatch of these species. We suggest that further experimentation is unlikely to be cost effective and that government agencies should work with fishers and scientists to explore alternative mitigation measures.


KEY WORDS: Snubfin · Humpback · Dolphins · Behaviour · Pinger · Bycatch · Gillnets · Australia


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Cite this article as: Berg Soto A, Cagnazzi D, Everingham Y, Parra GJ, Noad M, Marsh H (2013) Acoustic alarms elicit only subtle responses in the behaviour of tropical coastal dolphins in Queensland, Australia. Endang Species Res 20:271-282. https://doi.org/10.3354/esr00495

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