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Whistle classification ofsympatric false killer whale populations in Hawaiian waters yields low accuracy rates

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Date
18/10/2019
Author
Barkley, Yvonne
Oleson, Erin M.
Oswald, Julie N.
Franklin, Erik C.
Keywords
Cetaceans
False killer whale
Passive acoustic monitoring
Population classification
Hawaiian archipelago
Machine Learning
QH301 Biology
NDAS
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Abstract
Cetaceans are ecologically important marine predators, and designating individuals to distinct populations can be challenging. Passive acoustic monitoring provides an approach to classify cetaceans to populations using their vocalizations. In the Hawaiian Archipelago, three genetically distinct, sympatric false killer whale (Pseudorca crassidens) populations coexist: a broadly distributed pelagic population and two island-associated populations, an endangered main Hawaiian Islands (MHI) population and a Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI) population. The mechanisms that sustain the genetic separation between these overlapping populations are unknown but previous studies suggest that the acoustic diversity between populations may correspond to genetic differences. Here, we investigated whether false killer whale whistles could be correctly classified to population based on their characteristics to serve as a method of identifying populations when genetic or photographic-identification data are unavailable. Acoustic data were collected during line-transect surveys using towed hydrophone arrays. We measured 50 time and frequency parameters from whistles in 16 false killer whale encounters identified to population and used those measures to train and test random forest classification models. Random forest models that included three populations correctly classified 42% of individual whistles overall and resulted in a low kappa coefficient, κ = 0.15, indicating low agreement between models, and the true population. Whistles from the MHI population showed the highest correct classification rate (52%) compared to pelagic and NWHI whistles (42 and 36%, respectively). Pairwise random forest models classifying pelagic and MHI whistles proved slightly more accurate (62% accuracy, κ = 0.24), though a similar pelagic-NWHI model did not (56% accuracy, κ = 0.12). Results suggest that the time-frequency whistle characteristics are not suitable to confidently classify encounters to a specific false killer whale population, although certain features of whistles produced by the endangered MHI population allow for overall higher classification accuracy. Inclusion of other vocalization types, such as echolocation clicks, and alternative whistle variables may improve correct classification success for these sympatric populations.
Citation
Barkley , Y , Oleson , E M , Oswald , J N & Franklin , E C 2019 , ' Whistle classification ofsympatric false killer whale populations in Hawaiian waters yields low accuracy rates ' , Frontiers in Marine Science , vol. 6 , 645 . https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2019.00645
Publication
Frontiers in Marine Science
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2019.00645
ISSN
2296-7745
Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © 2019 Barkley, Oleson, Oswald and Franklin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Description
Funding for passive acoustic data collection during the shipboard cetacean line-transect surveys was provided by PIFSC, SWFSC, NOAA Fisheries Pacific Islands Regional Office, and NOAA Fisheries Office of Protected Resources (OPR) for HICEAS 2010, PIFSC for PICEAS, PACES and HITEC, and PIFSC, OPR, NOAA Fisheries Office of Science and Technology, Chief of Naval Operation Environmental Readiness Division and Pacific Fleet, and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management for HICEAS 2017. Funding for passive acoustic data analysis was provided by PIFSC and the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships Program.
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  • University of St Andrews Research
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/18775

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