Audio of orcas harassing sperm whales in Bleik Canyon, northern Norway, on 23-07-2011

Two-channel wav file recorded on 23-07-2011 aboard the M/S Reine, within 69.34 – 69.47 N and 15.58 – 15.86 E in the Bleik Canyon. The M/S Reine is owned and operated by Whalesafari Andenes, and Whalesafari is the originator and owner of this audio file.

The M/S Reine has two custom hull-mounted directional hydrophones, sampling rate at 44.1 kHz that allow the crew to listen for cetaceans and, based on differences in loudness between the hydrophones, get close to where the animals are before they surface. Detailed information about the hydrophone specifics can be found in Nielsen & Møhl (2006). Description of the orca harassment event on sperm whales is described in Cosentino et al. (2025) with Marine Mammal Science Notes.

Cosentino, M., E. T. Griffiths, J. A. van Dam, and C. H. van Dongen. 2025. “ Skittish Males in High Latitudes: Complex Social and Acoustic Response of Adult Male Sperm Whales When Harassed by Orcas.” Marine Mammal Science e70057. https://doi.org/10.1111/mms.70057

Nielsen, B. K., & Møhl, B. (2006). Hull-mounted hydrophones for passive acoustic detection and tracking of sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus). Applied Acoustics, 67(11–12), 1175–1186. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apacoust.2006.05.008