Consider to collect shorter baseline periods, which will enable more exposures to be completed before tag comes off.
Will be discussed and concluded at 3S-12 cruise planning meeting
3S-group (PI) Cruise planning meeting (02/12) The maximum exposure duration should be stated
in the protocol.
In the Minke whale exposure 60 min was used, this is adapted as the max exposure time and will be implemented in the exposure protocol before the next trial
PI
3S-12 (06/12) Decide if source ship should change course
towards the animal, also after it has clearly responded.
Will be discussed and concluded at cruise planning meeting
3S-group (PI) Cruise planning meeting (02/12) Consider to change exposure protocol for Minke
whales and commence exposure at larger ranges than 4nmi to achieve lower initial received levels.
Confirm from data at what received levels the Minke whale responded, and based on that adapt protocol. Will be discussed and concluded at cruise planning meeting
IMR
Cruise planning meeting (02/12) Keep a strict minimum distance between source
ship and tagged animals after first exposure.
Min distance should be 1nmi, preferred distance >2nmi.
Cruise leader 3S-12 (06/12) If using invasive tags on Minke whales in the
future, consider to change protocol to extend the duration of experiments (e.g. 24 or even 48 hrs)
Will be discussed and concluded at cruise planning meeting
3S-group (PI) Cruise planning meeting (02/12) Consider to change the order of sonar and killer
whale playback exposures in Minke whales
This can compromise the sonar exposure, having the highest priority .The current order (silent-sonar-sonar-Killer whale playback) will be tried at least once more before considering to change it.
Chief scientists 3S-12 (06/12)
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Consider to change the exposure protocol for Bottlenose whales to comply with SOCAL and BRS.
Will be discussed and concluded at cruise planning meeting
3S-group (PI) Cruise planning meeting (02/12) CRUISE MANAGEMENT
Explicit representation of the MMO-team at the daily planning meeting.
All team members will be invited to express ideas and concerns in the beginning of the chief scientist meeting.
Generally communication should follow chain of command within each team.
MMO-team leaders are especially encouraged to give short updates on the status of the work and teams.
Cruise leader 3S-12 (06/12)
MMO-team leader and the CO on watch should plan the shift and recruit personnel from other teams if available and needed.
This is mainly how things were done already, but this will be formalized more in the next trial.
MMO-leader / CO
3S-12 (06/12) Consider to change species priority for future trials
if TNO funding for 3S-13 is not granted
Formal decision on TNO funding is expected primo 2012. If TNO can not participate in 3S-13, the logical
consequence is to reduce the scope of the project and reduce the numbers of target species.
Many of the issues raised by the team are procedural issues such as suggested changes to the experimental protocols. These will be discussed and concluded at the cruise planning meeting prior to the next 3S-trial. This meeting is planned for February 2012. There are also some minor technical or practical details to be sorted out before the next trial, which will potentially also improve our performance. The most challenging issues which must be addressed before the next trial, is related to our ability to find Bottlenose whales and to tag Minke whales.
We will carefully assess options of changing field site, but don’t expect to find new
information to base such assessment on. We did find Bottlenose whales during the trial, but too late to achieve much. We will therefore assess the possibility of getting real time information of the whereabouts of Bottlenose whales just prior to the next trial, by sending our MMOs on scouting expeditions on ships or airplanes.
It seems as if the current version of the DTAG can not be used with Minke whales, since the suction cups do not attach to the animals. We therefore have to either change the attachment of the DTAG or use the CTAG instead, in the future. The preferred solution is to use the DTAG. The data recording rate of the motion sensors in the DTAG enable us to study potential responses of the animals in much greater detail then with any alternative sensor packages known to us. The acoustic sensor of the DTAG also enables us to measure the received level of sound on the animal. The use of DTAG will also make the results of the Minke whale experiments easier to compare to results of experiments on other species,
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since the DTAG is used in most exposure experiments to date. Our preferred plan of action is to start working with the DTAG -group to develop an invasive attachment for the DTAG as soon as possible. This attachment should of course be specified to be minimally invasive.
A major challenge will also be the release mechanism of the tag. The alternative course of action for us is to start looking at the CTAG and on how to improve the sensor suite of this tag.
5.2 Future plans
There are already plans to conduct a second full scale sonar exposure trial in 2012. The funding is already in place for this trial for all involved partners. The crew and logistics will be mostly the same as during 3S-11. The 3S-12 trial is preliminary scheduled for June 2012 and the field site will be the area between Bear Island and Spitsbergen, but will be extended westwards off the shelf, based on our sightings of Bottlenose whales this year. The current decision is that the target species will be the same three as during 3S-11, but this list might be expanded or compressed depending on the prospect of future funding. A cruise planning meeting will be held in St.Andrews in February 2012 to finalize the plans for the 3S-12 trial.
The 3S-group also has plans to conduct a third full scale sonar exposure trial and a baseline trial in 2013. Details of these trials are pending decisions on funding for some of the partners.
6 References
Kvadsheim P, Benders F, Miller P, Doksæter L, Knudsen F, Tyack P, Nordlund N, Lam F-P, Samarra F, Kleivane L and Godø OR. (2007). Herring (sild), killer whales (spekkhogger) and sonar – the 3S-2006 cruise report with preliminary results. FFI-rapport 2007/01189.
(http://rapporter.ffi.no/rapporter/2007/01189.pdf)
Kvadsheim P, Lam F-P, Miller P, Alves AC, Antunes R, Bocconcelli A, von Ijsselmuide S, Kleivane L, Olivierse M and Visser F. (2009). Cetaceans and naval sonar – the 3S-2009 cruise report. FFI-rapport 2009/01140 (http://FFI-rapporter.ffi.no/FFI-rapporter/2009/01140.pdf)
Miller P, Antunes R, Alves AC, Wensveen P, Kvadsheim P, Kleivane L, Nordlund N, Lam F-P, von Ijsselmuide S, Visser F and Tyack p. (2011). The 3S experiments: studying the behavioural effects of naval sonar on killer whales (Orcinus orca), sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus), and long-finned pilot whales (Globicephala melas) in Norwegian water. Scottish Oceans Inst.
Tech. Rept. SOI-2011-001 (http://soi.st-andrews.ac.uk/documents/424.pdf)
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Acknowledgements
This report is a joint effort of all the authors. The cruise leader Dr. Petter Kvadsheim has been the chief editor. We are utterly thankful to all members of the 3S team, including collaborating partners and sponsors, who all contributed to our success. Special thanks to Peter Tyack (WHOI), Alex Bocconcelli (WHOI), Michael Ainslie (TNO), Sander von Benda-Beckmann (TNO) and Ricardo Antunes (SMRU), who were not on-board, but contributed significantly with advice and support in the planning and execution phase of the trial. Nina Nordlund (FFI) has been very helpful in generating some of the figures and plots of this report. The Logger software was made freely available by the International Fund for Animal Welfare to support conservation research.
The project is funded by The Norwegian Ministry of Defence, The US Office of Naval Research, The Dutch Ministry of Defence, The TOTAL foundation and World Wildlife Fund Norway. All animal experiments were carried out under permits issued by the Norwegian Animal Research Authority (Permit No. S2011/38782), in compliance with ethical use of animals in experimentation. The research protocol was approved by the University of St Andrews Animal Welfare and Ethics Committee and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s Animal Care and Use Committee.
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