'Snooping' on dolphins offers acoustic clues to hotspots for food and friends
For dolphins, the ocean is a world of sound. Their whistles carry social information, helping them communicate and stay connected, while echolocation—rapid-fire clicks—functions like underwater sonar, helping them navigate their surroundings and detect potential prey.
Researchers from Florida Atlantic University's Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute have discovered that dolphins use acoustic clues in the underwater soundscape to navigate and find food and socialize. By using an autonomous wave glider equipped with an acoustic recorder, the team spent two months listening across the East Florida Shelf, capturing nearly 62 hours of underwater sound and detecting dolphins in over 1,600 recordings.
The findings, published in the journal PeerJ, reveal distinct patterns in dolphin whistles and echolocation, suggesting dolphins may favor different habitats for socializing and hunting. Whistle activity, associated with social behavior, was more frequent in nearshore waters and influenced by factors such as location, water temperature, sound levels, and chlorophyll-a concentration.
Echolocation, on the other hand, was concentrated near Melbourne to Ponce Inlet and offshore toward Long John Reef, where sound-producing fish were also abundant. This suggests that dolphins may be using acoustic clues from their prey as they hunt, providing researchers with a way to pinpoint potential feeding grounds without ever seeing a dolphin or its prey.
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