CCES Data

CCES was a multidisciplinary survey of the marine ecosystem from the US-Canada border south to Northern Baja California, Mexico. Background information on this survey as well as preliminary analysis of beaked whale, sperm whale, and narrow band high frequency species are provided in (Simonis 2020). A map of tracklines is provided in Figure 1.

Deployment Map

Map of the west coast of the United States with plots of all successful CCES drifts shown as black and white lines that represent their geoposition during the drift. The west coast Wind Energy Areas are outlined in purple, and shipping traffic lanes are outlined in yellow. Latitude is on the x-axis, and Longitude is on the y-axis. Bathymetry is shown with light blue for the shelf and slope waters, and dark blue for deep ocean waters. A 100 m and 200 m isobath line is provided."

Figure 1: Plot of all successful drifts deployed during the CCES Survey. Drifts are shown as black/white lines; Wind Energy Areas are outlined in purple, and shipping lanes for entry to San Francisco Bay are outlined in yellow.

Data were analyzed following methods consistent with the Adrift data analysis, with slight modifications to address duty cycled data. The power spectral density plots (PSD) can be found online.

Odontocete Detections

Each of the major odontocete groups were detected during the CCES study (Figure 2).

Hourly presence of sperm whales (top left), beaked whales (top right),dolphins (lower left), and NBHF (lower right) for the CCES survey. The number of hours for combined deployments is provided on the y-axis, and the date on the x-axis, with seasons shaded in blue for winter, green for upwelling, and yellow for the post-upwelling season (all effort for CCES was during the post-upwelling season). Effort is outlined with a black line, and hours of effort with detections are highlighted in red. Daily deployment hours ranged from 24 to 160 hours per day, depending on the number of acoustic recorders deployed per day. Detection of all species varied based on the number and location of acoustic recorders deployed on that date. Hourly detection of beaked whales and dolphins increased later in the survey. Detection of sperm whales was low except for two peaks (likely related to specific drifts), and detection of NBHF was low throughout the survey.

Figure 2: Hourly presence of sperm whales, beaked whales, dolphins, and narrow band high frequency species during the CCES 2018 survey. Hourly presence (y axis) of sperm whales (top left), beaked whales (top right), dolphins (lower left), and narrow band high frequency species (lower right) for months (x axis) and seasons (color bands) during the CCES 2018 survey. Black lines represent total available hours (effort) and bottom graph shows total effort for survey. Blue shading represents winter, green represents upwelling, and yellow represents the post-upwelling oceanographic season.

Mysticete Detections

Blue whale detections were dominated by song, as the low hourly presence of D calls indicates that A/B (song) calls dominated the blue whale detections (Figure 3). There were a few minke whale detections in the later months of the survey. Detection of fin whales was dominated by 20 Hz calls (Figure 3). There were no Fin whale 40 Hz calls, or calls associated with Bryde’s, sei, or gray whales.

Hourly presence of blue whales (top left), blue whale D calls (top right), fin whale 20 Hz calls (lower left), and minke whale boing calls (lower right) for the CCES survey. The number of hours for combined deployments is provided on the y-axis, and the date on the x-axis, with seasons shaded in blue for winter, green for upwelling, and yellow for the post-upwelling season (all effort for CCES was during the post-upwelling season). Effort is outlined with a black line, and hours of effort with detections are highlighted in red. Daily deployment hours ranged from 24 to over 160 hours per day, depending on the number of acoustic recorders deployed per day. Detection of all species varied based on the number and location of acoustic recorders deployed on that date. The proportion of total hours with blue whale song (A/B calls, or non- D calls) were very high at the end of the survey effort, while blue whale D calls low for the entire survey. The proportion of total hours with fin whale song (20 Hz) were lower at the end of the survey effort and there were no detections of fin whale 40 Hz calls during the CCES survey. There were few detections of minke whale boing calls later in the survey.

Figure 3: Hourly presence of blue whales (all calls), blue whale D calls, fin whale 20 Hz, and minke whale calls during the CCES 2018 survey. Hourly presence (y axis) of blue whales (all calls, top left), blue whale D calls (top right), fin whale 20 Hz (lower left), and minke whale calls (lower right) for months (x axis) and seasons (color bands) during the CCES 2018 survey. Black lines represent total available hours (effort) and bottom graph shows total effort for survey. Blue shading represents winter, green represents upwelling, and yellow represents the post-upwelling oceanographic season.

There were few hourly detections of humpback whales (hourly presence plots can be found in our GitHub Repository. Most of the CCES deployments were further offshore than the Adrift deployments, and this offshore distribution may be the reason for such low detection rates.

Acoustic Scenes by Drift

Temporal variation (marked in hourly bins) in the contribution of these sounds to the overall soundscape are provided by the acoustic scene. An acoustic scene provides a visualization of the spectral variation in the contributors to the soundscape, where detection of various species classes is noted by the approximate frequency of their sounds (see Figure 4). Acoustic Scenes were created for each CCES drift, and high resolution images are saved in the Adrift Github Repository, and links to specific drifts are provided in the table, below.

Figure 4: Drift track and Acoustic Scene for CCES Drift #007.
Links to high resolution images of acoustic scene and drift track for each CCES drift.
CCES_004 CCES_017
CCES_007 CCES_018
CCES_008 CCES_019
CCES_010 CCES_020
CCES_012 CCES_021
CCES_013 CCES_022
CCES_014 CCES_023
CCES_016

CCES Deployment Table

A complete list of successful drifting recorder deployments during the CCES survey are provided in the table (below). Sites include Humboldt (HUM), Point Arena (PTA), Morro Bay (MOB), Channel Islands (CHI), and Baja California Norte (BCN). See Study Area Figure 1 for more information on regions.

Drift ID Site Status Deployment Retrieval Recording Specifications Data Start Date Data End Date
Date Lat Long Date Lat Long Recorder SR (kHz) Duty Cycle HP Depth (m)
CCES_004 HUM Complete 2018-07-25 45.08 −128.21 2018-10-13 41.76 −127.15 SM3M 256 2 min per 20 100 2018-07-30 2018-10-12
CCES_007 HUM Complete 2018-08-05 41.26 −125.02 2018-10-22 42.04 −124.48 ST4300HF 288 2 min per 20 150 2018-08-05 2018-09-22
CCES_008 HUM Complete 2018-08-16 38.95 −126.64 2018-10-10 34.38 −128.32 ST4300HF 288 2 min per 20 150 2018-08-16 2018-10-01
CCES_010 PTA Complete 2018-08-22 36.76 −125.06 2018-10-22 35.97 −122.94 ST4300HF 576 2 min per 20 150 2018-08-22 2018-10-21
CCES_012 MOB Complete 2018-08-30 34.83 −123.81 2018-10-06 34.03 −124.39 ST4300HF 288 2 min per 20 150 2018-08-30 2018-10-06
CCES_013 CHI Complete 2018-09-11 33.90 −120.91 2018-10-23 31.44 −119.78 ST4300HF 288 2 min per 20 150 2018-09-11 2018-10-23
CCES_014 BCN Complete 2018-10-05 32.27 −118.26 2018-11-01 31.95 −119.25 ST4300HF 576 2 min per 20 150 2018-10-05 2018-11-01
CCES_016 BCN Complete 2018-10-30 31.35 −117.42 2018-11-21 32.13 −118.03 ST4300HF 576 2 min per 10 150 2018-10-30 2018-11-15
CCES_017 BCN Complete 2018-10-31 30.73 −118.69 2018-11-24 28.29 −118.44 SM3M 256 2 min per 4 100 2018-10-31 2018-11-24
CCES_018 BCN Complete 2018-10-31 30.01 −120.18 2018-11-23 29.51 −118.82 ST4300HF 576 2 min per 6 150 2018-10-31 2018-11-16
CCES_019 BCN Complete 2018-11-01 30.05 −117.46 2018-11-27 28.40 −115.55 ST4300HF 576 2 min per 10 150 2018-11-01 2018-11-18
CCES_020 BCN Complete 2018-11-05 29.46 −118.39 2018-11-22 29.39 −116.34 ST4300HF 576 2 min per 10 150 2018-11-05 2018-11-22
CCES_021 BCN Complete 2018-11-06 29.47 −116.01 2018-11-11 29.82 −116.08 ST4300HF 576 2 min per 6 150 2018-11-06 2018-11-11
CCES_022 BCN Complete 2018-11-07 28.72 −116.48 2018-11-27 28.28 −116.68 ST4300HF 576 2 min per 10 150 2018-11-07 2018-11-23
CCES_023 BCN Complete 2018-11-22 30.93 −117.38 2018-12-03 31.05 −119.01 ST4300HF 576 2 min per 5 150 2018-11-22 2018-12-03

References

Simonis, Anne E. 2020. “Passive Acoustic Survey of Deep-Diving Odontocetes in the California Current Ecosystem 2018: Final Report.” NOAA-TM-NMFS-SWFSC-630. https://doi.org/10.25923/W5XX-JZ73.