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Simple Summary: There is some evidence that the presence of dolphins in fishing areas represents a concrete economic loss for fishermen due to their depredation activities on the entangled fish on the nets. Bycatch events are one of the major sources of anthropogenic mortality of species of conservation interest in the world. T. truncatus is a plastic species and the more frequently observed species in the Adriatic Sea owing to the natural tendency to interact with the fishing activities in the area. This case report describes the acoustic parameters detected in whistle spectral contours associated with low-frequency signals recorded with a passive acoustic monitoring device in an exceptional event of bycatch that involved three individuals during a midwater commercial trawling in the Adriatic Sea. Marine mammal vocal elements have been investigated for decades to assess whether they correlate with stress levels or stress indicators. Due to their acoustic plasticity, the interpretation of dolphins' acoustic signals of has been studied most extensively. This work describes the acoustic parameters detected in whistle spectral contours, collected using passive acoustic monitoring (PAM), in a bycatch event that involved three Bottlenose dolphins during midwater commercial trawling. The results indicate a total number of 23 upsweep whistles recorded during the bycatch event, that were analyzed based on the acoustic parameters as follows: (Median; 25th percentile; 75th percentile) Dr (second), total duration (1.09; 0.88; 1.24); fmin (HZ), minimum frequency (5836.4; 5635.3; 5967.1); fmax (HZ), maximum frequency, (11,610 ± 11,293; 11,810); fc (HZ), central frequency; (8665.2; 8492.9; 8982.8); BW (HZ), bandwidth (5836.4; 5635.3; 5967.1); Step, number of step (5; 4; 6). Furthermore, our data show that vocal production during the capture event was characterized by an undescribed to date combination of two signals, an ascending whistle (upsweep), and a pulsed signal that we called "low-frequency signal" in the frequency band between 4.5 and 7 kHz. This capture event reveals a novel aspect of T. truncatus acoustic communication, it confirms their acoustic plasticity, and suggests that states of discomfort are conveyed through their acoustic repertoire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: To date there is not much information regard the role that sounds may play in the life of elasmobranchs. This gains particular importance if we consider the current understanding about noise pollution at sea. In fact, in the past few years, the effects of anthropogenic noise on marine fauna have received increasing attentions considering the plethora of repercussions deriving from the expansion of this type of pollution. Here, we exposed small-spotted catshark specimens kept in an aquarium, to different acoustic conditions to analyse the possible changes in swimming behaviour. Four different acoustic conditions consisted of biological sounds and anthropogenic noises. Moreover, the amplitude levels were differentiated among them, to analyse the effects caused by different signal-to-noise ratios. The results highlighted both a tendency of the animals to increase the overall time spent swimming and to avoid the noisiest section of the aquarium when subjected to higher amplitude levels of noise. Despite the growing interest in human-made noise effects on marine wildlife, few studies have investigated the potential role of underwater noise on elasmobranch species. In this study, twelve specimens of small-spotted catshark (Scyliorhinus canicula) were exposed to biological and anthropogenic sounds in order to assess their behavioural changes in response to prey acoustic stimuli and to different amplitude levels of shipping noise. The sharks, individually held in aquariums, were exposed to four experimental acoustic conditions characterized by different spectral (Hz) components and amplitude (dB re 1 µPa) levels. The swimming behaviour and spatial distribution of sharks were observed. The results highlighted significant differences in swimming time and in the spatial use of the aquarium among the experimental conditions. When the amplitude levels of biological sources were higher than those of anthropogenic sources, the sharks' swimming behaviour was concentrated in the bottom sections of the aquarium; when the amplitude levels of anthropogenic sources were higher than biological ones, the specimens increased the time spent swimming. Moreover, their spatial distribution highlighted a tendency to occupy the least noisy sections of the aquarium. In conclusion, this study highlighted that anthropogenic noise is able to affect behaviour of catshark specimens and the impact depends on acoustic amplitude levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]