Ecology and Evolution (2017)
Mammalian body condition is an important individual fitness metric as it affects both survival and reproductive success. The ability to accurately measure condition has key implications for predicting individual and…
Marine mammal sightings around oil and gas installations in the central North Sea
Delefosse, Matthieu; Rahbek, Malene Louise; Roesen, Lars; Clausen, Karin Tubbert
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom (2017)
Relatively little is known about the distribution and diversity of marine mammals around offshore anthropogenic structures. We present results obtained from incidental sightings of marine mammals around oil and gas…
The effects of marine traffic on the behaviour of Black Sea harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena relicta) within the Istanbul Strait, Turkey
Akkaya Bas, Aylin; Christiansen, Fredrik; Öztürk, Ayaka Amaha; Öztürk, Bayram; McIntosh, Caley
PLOS ONE (2017)
Marine traffic is threatening cetaceans on a local and global scale. The Istanbul Strait is one of the busiest waterways, with up to 2,500 vessels present daily. This is the…
Harbour porpoise distribution can vary at small spatiotemporal scales in energetic habitats
Benjamins, Steven; van Geel, Nienke; Hastie, Gordon; Elliott, Jim; Wilson, Ben
Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography (2017)
Marine habitat heterogeneity underpins species distribution and can be generated through interactions between physical and biological drivers at multiple spatiotemporal scales. Passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) is used worldwide to study…
Precocious hearing in harbour porpoise neonates
Wahlberg, Magnus; Delgado-García, Lara; Kristensen, Jakob H.
Journal of Comparative Physiology A (2017)
Hearing is the primary sensory modality for toothed whales, but it is not known at which age it is fully developed. For newborn calves, hearing could fill an important function…
Comparative physiology of vocal musculature in two odontocetes, the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) and the harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena)
Thometz, Nicole M.; Dearolf, Jennifer L.; Dunkin, Robin C.; Noren, Dawn P.; Holt, Marla M.; Sims, Olivia C.; Cathey, Brandon C.; Williams, Terrie M.
Journal of Comparative Physiology B (2017)
The mechanism by which odontocetes produce sound is unique among mammals. To gain insight into the physiological properties that support sound production in toothed whales, we examined myoglobin content ([Mb]),…
Where is the risk? Integrating a spatial distribution model and a risk assessment to identify areas of cetacean interaction with fisheries in the northeast Atlantic
Breen, Patricia; Brown, Susie; Reid, David; Rogan, Emer
Ocean & Coastal Management (2017)
Throughout their range, marine mammals are vulnerable to incidental capture in fishing gear. Bycatch is a particularly important issue for cetaceans, which generally have lower potential rates of population growth…
Resilience of harbor porpoises to anthropogenic disturbance: Must they really feed continuously?
Hoekendijk, Jeroen P. A.; Spitz, Jerome; Read, Andrew J.; Leopold, Mardik F.; Fontaine, Michael C.
Marine Mammal Science (2017)
...Recently, Wisniewska et al. (2016) used high-resolution digital acoustic tags (DTAGs) to monitor the foraging behavior of five harbor porpoises in Danish waters. This approach provided detailed observations on the…
Patterns of cetacean vaginal folds yield insights into functionality
Orbach, Dara N.; Marshall, Christopher D.; Mesnick, Sarah L.; Würsig, Bernd
PLOS ONE (2017)
Complex foldings of the vaginal wall are unique to some cetaceans and artiodactyls and are of unknown function(s). The patterns of vaginal length and cumulative vaginal fold length were assessed…
Mixing of porpoise ecotypes in southwestern UK waters revealed by genetic profiling
Fontaine, Michaël C.; Thatcher, Oliver; Ray, Nicolas; Piry, Sylvain; Brownlow, Andrew; Davison, Nicholas J.; Jepson, Paul; Deaville, Rob; Goodman, Simon J.
Royal Society Open Science (2017)
Contact zones between ecotypes are windows for understanding how species may react to climate changes. Here, we analysed the fine-scale genetic and morphological variation in harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) around…