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
Rights
© 2017, Acoustical Society of America. This work has been made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created, accepted version manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://doi.org/10.1121/1.5011673
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
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