BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Marine Megafauna
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2025.1582414
Pingers as a potential deterrent tool to mitigate Burmeister's porpoise (Phocoena spinipinnis) bycatch while foraging nocturnally in the Humboldt Current System: A pilot study
Provisionally accepted
Diego H Diaz1
Ana Maria Garcia Cegarra2,3*- 1Instituto de Acústica Universidad Austral de Chile, Valdivia, Chile
- 2Instituto de Ciencias Naturales Alexander von Humboldt, Universidad de Antofagasta, Antofagasta, Chile
- 3CETALAB, Laboratory for the Study of Marine Megafauna, Antofagasta, Chile
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Fisheries bycatch is one of the main threats for porpoise species worldwide. In the Humboldt Current system of northern Chile, the elusive Burmeister's porpoise (Phocoena spinipinnis) inhabits the coastal waters of Mejillones Bay and suffers bycatch mortality in purse seine fishing nets and coastal gillnets. In order to mitigate bycatch of this near-threatened species, this study aimed to (1) analyze the diurnal and nocturnal acoustic behaviors of the Burmeister's porpoise and (2) evaluate the potential of banana pingers as acoustic deterrent tools. For 27 days during austral summer, a full wave form capture porpoise detector was anchored 7 m above sea level in Mejillones Bay where Burmeister's porpoises are frequently observed. During this time, the detector registered acoustic activity continuously over 13 days, and a banana pinger deployed over 100 m away from the detector emitted high frequency sounds continuously for 14 days. The results show that the number of clicks and detection-positive minutes were significantly higher while the inter-click intervals and high click rate feeding buzz were significantly lower at night, indicating that Burmeister's porpoises forage mainly nocturnally in this bay. With pingers present, the probability of detection of Burmeister's porpoise acoustic activity decreased by 20%, suggesting that pingers could be an effective tool to avoid Burmeister's porpoise mortality in fishing nets. Future studies should implement pingers in artisanal purse seine fishing nets and coastal gillnets in order to mitigate Burmeister's porpoise bycatch in northern Chile.
Keywords: Acoustic deterrent, F-POD, Passive acoustic monitoring, Phocoena spinipinnis, Chile
Received: 24 Feb 2025; Accepted: 25 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Diaz and Garcia Cegarra. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Ana Maria Garcia Cegarra, Instituto de Ciencias Naturales Alexander von Humboldt, Universidad de Antofagasta, Antofagasta, Chile
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.