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<p>Bearded seals (<i>Erignathus barbatus</i>), an ice-associated species with distinctive vocalizations, serve as important bio-indicators of environmental conditions in the Arctic marine ecosystem. Typically found in areas with floating sea ice over shallow shelves, they are distributed across the Arctic Circle (Burns 1981; Kovacs 2018). This study presents general observations on the vocal presence of bearded seals in the Southern Nansen Basin (81°47’5.64” N, 22°0’16.80” E) of the Central Arctic Ocean, based on passive acoustic data collected as part of a broader oceanographic monitoring program. The analysis is limited by both temporal resolution (recordings obtained once every 36&#xa0;h) and frequency bandwidth (sampling rate constrained to 4-kHz), restricting the detection of higher-frequency components of seal vocalizations. Despite these limitations, the study reveals recurring patterns of vocal activity over an extended seasonal period. Two primary vocal types—trills and moans—were identified within the detectable frequency band. Trills, the male mating signals further classified into long, step, and sweep variants, were dominant throughout the dataset. Trill vocalizations resumed on April 19, 2020, and continued until early July 2020, broadly aligning with the species’ known mating period. Sparse moans were detected from October 2019 to January 2020, followed by a period of acoustic silence from February to mid-April 2020, which may correspond to seasonal behavioral shifts. These preliminary findings provide limited but valuable insight into the bearded seals vocal presence in a rarely studied deepwater Arctic environment, and highlight the potential for long-term passive acoustic monitoring even with constrained datasets.</p>

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Passive acoustic detection of bearded seal vocalizations in the Southern Nansen Basin, Central Arctic Ocean

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年7月9日

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  • R. Kannan,
  • M. C. Sanjana,
  • G. Latha,
  • G. A. Ramadass,
  • A. Thirunavukkarasu,
  • G. Raguraman

摘要

Bearded seals (Erignathus barbatus), an ice-associated species with distinctive vocalizations, serve as important bio-indicators of environmental conditions in the Arctic marine ecosystem. Typically found in areas with floating sea ice over shallow shelves, they are distributed across the Arctic Circle (Burns 1981; Kovacs 2018). This study presents general observations on the vocal presence of bearded seals in the Southern Nansen Basin (81°47’5.64” N, 22°0’16.80” E) of the Central Arctic Ocean, based on passive acoustic data collected as part of a broader oceanographic monitoring program. The analysis is limited by both temporal resolution (recordings obtained once every 36 h) and frequency bandwidth (sampling rate constrained to 4-kHz), restricting the detection of higher-frequency components of seal vocalizations. Despite these limitations, the study reveals recurring patterns of vocal activity over an extended seasonal period. Two primary vocal types—trills and moans—were identified within the detectable frequency band. Trills, the male mating signals further classified into long, step, and sweep variants, were dominant throughout the dataset. Trill vocalizations resumed on April 19, 2020, and continued until early July 2020, broadly aligning with the species’ known mating period. Sparse moans were detected from October 2019 to January 2020, followed by a period of acoustic silence from February to mid-April 2020, which may correspond to seasonal behavioral shifts. These preliminary findings provide limited but valuable insight into the bearded seals vocal presence in a rarely studied deepwater Arctic environment, and highlight the potential for long-term passive acoustic monitoring even with constrained datasets.