DOI: 10.5061/dryad.q2bvq83sw
title: Data from: Fish chorusing patterns in California (USA) National Marine Sanctuaries

description: This dataset contains fish chorusing event logs used in the
 study "Fish chorusing patterns in California National Marine
 Sanctuaries", published in Marine Ecology Progress Series (Kim et al.
 2025). The logs include the start and end times of fish chorusing events
 detected across nine passive acoustic monitoring sites located in the
 Monterey Bay, Channel Islands, and Chumash Heritage National Marine
 Sanctuaries from 2018–2022. Chorus detections are categorized by species,
 including bocaccio rockfish (Sebastes paucispinis), plainfin midshipman
 (Porichthys notatus), white seabass (Atractoscion nobilis), and two
 unidentified fish types. 
description: Through the Sanctuary Soundscape Monitoring project, we collected
 passive acoustic data across 9 sites, each recording for ~2 years for a
 cumulative 18.3 recording-years. We manually analyzed acoustic data
 (logging start and end times of each chorus type) for fish chorusing in
 Monterey Bay, Chumash Heritage, and Channel Islands National Marine
 Sanctuaries. We collected passive acoustic data using
 SoundTraps (Soundtrap ST500 and Soundtrap ST600, Ocean Instruments, NZ) at
 three sites in MBNMS, one in originally proposed CHNMS, and five sites in
 CINMS over multiple deployments from 2018-2023. Sites were named after
 location, with Channel Islands abbreviated to “CI,” Chumash Heritage to
 “CH,” and Monterey Bay to “MB,” and numbers allowing for further
 differentiation between recording sites, and then further number
 indicating deployment numbers.  Raw WAV files underwent compression for
 long-term spectral averages (LTSAs), employing 1000-point fast Fourier
 transforms (FFTs), Hanning window, no overlap, and 5-s and 1-Hz
 resolution. LTSAs were generated using <em>Triton</em>, a
 custom MATLAB (Mathworks, Natick, MA) software (Triton Github, 2023;
 Wiggins and Hildebrand, 2007). We defined a fish chorus as sustained
 acoustic activity that exceeded ambient noise levels by at least 3 dB re 1
 mPa2/Hz for an extended period (minutes to hours), within species-specific
 frequency bands between 10 and 1000 Hz (Cato 1978, Parsons et al. 2016,
 Pagniello et al. 2019). Choruses were classified as originating from fish
 by analyzing similarity of acoustic features to other reported fish
 choruses and calls, including frequency content, timing, call duration,
 and the number of repeated pulses when calls were present (Parsons et al.
 2016, Pagniello et al. 2019). In Triton, we manually scanned LTSAs for
 fish chorusing presence. We scanned LTSAs from 1 to 1000 Hz in
 species-specific frequency bands, using a viewing length of 24 h and 40%
 brightness and 120% contrast. We utilized ‘Logger,’ a Triton software
 package, to log start and end times of choruses, when sound levels were at
 least 3 dB re 1 mPa2/Hz above ambient noise (Wirth & Warren 2020).
 Selecting a 3 dB re 1 mPa2/Hz threshold, or a doubling of acoustic
 intensity, captured a biologically meaningful rise in acoustic activity
 well above ambient noise, aligning with fish calling studies that
 highlight periods of activity significantly above ambient levels (Cato
 1978, Luczkovich et al. 1999, Wirth & Warren 2020). In cases of
 uncertainty, we scanned 30 s spectrograms (700 pt FFT, 90% overlap, 40%
 brightness, 120% contrast) to identify individual fish calls and clarify
 chorus presence. We logged choruses as separate events if there was an
 interval of at least 20 min between them in the LTSA. We used a 20 min
 cutoff between chorusing events to reflect natural breaks we observed, and
 to accurately capture independence of acoustic events, consistent with
 practices in other bioacoustics studies (e.g. Rice et al. 2021). Choruses
 that have been previously identified to species level were documented.
 Choruses that had no prior species identification, but contained calls
 previously identified as belonging to a particular species (during time
 periods without other choruses present), were attributed to that species.
 Choruses without species assignments, and no visible or identifiable
 calls, were labeled as ‘unidentified fish’ choruses. Unidentified fish
 choruses were labeled ‘UF#,’ with numbers referring to peak frequencies of
 calls or dominant frequencies of choruses when no calls were visible. For
 more details see Kim et al. 2025.
description: # Fish Chorus Logs in California National Marine Sanctuaries
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.q2bvq83sw](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.q2bvq83sw) This dataset contains all fish chorus logs manually detected from passive acoustic data collected in Monterey Bay, Channel Islands, and proposed Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuaries. All manual fish chorus logs that were used for data analysis are available here. ## Data and File Structure Data is structured as individual xls files, organized by site and deployment with the format "Siteabbreviation_site number_deployment number", ex. "CI01_02_03" is Channel Islands, site 2, deployment 3. Within each spreadsheet, you will find a Detection tab which includes start and end date-times of fish chorus detections in UTC (in MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM:SS.s format), as well as fish chorus names under "comments." Under the MetaData tab you will find start and end effort times, indicating times instruments were in the water during the deployment. ## Sharing/Access information Acoustic data was collected through the Sanctuary Soundscape project, which was a collaboration between NOAA and the U.S. Navy to better understand underwater sound within the National Marine Sanctuary System. SanctSound spectrograms, broadband sound level summaries, and exemplar sounds can be visualized, explored, and downloaded via the project data portal. Raw audio files are available through National Center for Environmental Information. * **[https://sanctsound.portal.axds.co/](https://sanctsound.portal.axds.co/)**