Passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) has become a standard method to aid in detection of North Atlantic right whale presence in a region. Accurate call rate estimates are critical to assess the detectability of individual right whales with PAM. However, average estimates for cue rates for right whales are highly dependent on behavioral state, which varies between habitats, and may not represent the true probability of detection in all regions. In this study, we use acoustic data from DTAGs to calculate right whale call rates and call types in different behavioral states across three habitats and seasons. This includes acoustic tag data from Cape Cod Bay (Spring), Southern New England (Autumn), and the Southeast U.S. (Winter). These call rates can be combined with estimates of the proportion of time spent in each different behavioral state to improve regional call rate estimates for right whales. These methods will improve right whale call rate estimates, which in turn can be used to more accurately predict the acoustic detectability of right whales in different habitats and inform the potential for acoustic density estimation for this species.
Parks et al. (Wed,) studied this question.