Habitat use of beluga whales revealed by acoustic loggers.

The detection of odontocete echolocation signals with acoustic loggers has proved to be a very effective way to monitor their distribution, seasonal patterns and habitat use. However, belugas (Delphinapterus leucas) have never been monitored using this methodology. In order to evaluate its viability, echolocation signals of captive belugas were analyzed and the performance of T‐POD (Chelonia Ltd., UK) acoustic loggers in captivity and in the Arctic environment was tested. Results from captivity demonstrated the potential of beluga remote monitoring by T‐PODs. Field tests were organized in different environmental conditions with different populations of belugas to ensure the validity and detection robustness of this method. T‐PODs were deployed in Svalbard (Norway) in Spring 2007, in Yakutat (Alaska) in Spring 2008, and in Solovetsky (Russia) in Summer 2008. Instruments were deployed concurrently with visual observations and hydrophone recordings to compare presence/absence data from the three different me...