Last call: Passive acoustic monitoring shows continued rapid decline of critically endangered vaquita
Abstract
The vaquita is a critically endangered species of porpoise. It produces echolocation clicks, making it a good candidate for passive acoustic monitoring. A systematic grid of sensors has been deployed for 3 months annually since 2011; results from 2016 are reported here. Statistical models (to compensate for non-uniform data loss) show an overall decline in the acoustic detection rate between 2015 and 2016 of 49% (95% credible interval 82% decline to 8% increase), and total decline between 2011 and 2016 of over 90%. Assuming the acoustic detection rate is proportional to population size, approximately 30 vaquita (95% credible interval 8–96) remained in November 2016.
Citation
Thomas , L , Jaramillo-legorreta , A , Cardenas-Hinojosa , G , Nieto-Garcia , E , Rojas-Bracho , L , Ver Hoef , J M , Moore , J , Taylor , B , Barlow , J & Tregenza , N 2017 , ' Last call: Passive acoustic monitoring shows continued rapid decline of critically endangered vaquita ' , Journal of the Acoustical Society of America , vol. 142 , no. 5 , pp. EL512-EL517 . https://doi.org/10.1121/1.5011673
Publication
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0001-4966Type
Journal article
Description
Funding: the Mexican Government (through the Mexican Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales), especially Minister R. Pacchiano and A. Michel; U.S. Marine Mammal Commission, in particular T. Ragen, R. Lent, and P. Thomas; the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Mexico, in particular O. Vidal and E. Sanjurjo; Le Equipe Cousteau; The Ocean Foundation; Fonds de Dotation pour la Biodiversité; MAAF Assurances (Save Your Logo); WWF-US; Opel Project Earth; Fideicomiso Fondo para la Biodiversidad; Instituto Nacional de Ecología y Cambio Climático; Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas; and Directorate of the Reserva de la Biósfera Alto Golfo de California y Delta del Río Colorado.Collections
Items in the St Andrews Research Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.