Seismic activity temporarily reshapes fin whale foraging radii
Abstract
Abstract As vital sentinels of marine ecosystem health, fin whales rely on acoustic cues for navigation and foraging. Although submarine seismic events can introduce intense acoustic perturbations, their quantitative impact on cetacean spatial foraging behavior remains largely uncharacterized. Here we show that submarine seismic events trigger abrupt, transient contractions in the spatial foraging range of whales in the southwestern Indian Ocean. By applying a deep learning-based 3D acoustic localization model (CTFusion-Net) to continuous passive acoustic observations, we reconstructed high-resolution daily foraging trajectories and quantified a significant reduction in foraging radii (p = 0.019) driven by epicentre proximity. regional prey catch. This suggests that seismically degraded sensory environments may force spatial restrictions on foraging, potentially driving localized prey depletion. Our findings provide observational evidence for a direct tectonic–biological linkage, demonstrating that natural geophysical disturbances can be integrated into assessments of ocean ecosystem resilience.
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