Cetaceans play critical roles in marine ecosystems and offer numerous benefits to humans. However, they are highly vulnerable, especially larger mysticete species due to their life history characteristics and increased susceptibility to anthropogenic impacts, including noise pollution. Both minke whales (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) and humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) are known to occur in Irish and Scottish waters, with the latter utilizing the region as a migratory route. This study employed passive acoustic monitoring data collected from October 2020 to March 2021 in the outer North Channel to investigate the influence of anthropogenic noise on these two species. While minke whale detections were limited, preventing robust habitat modeling, Species Distribution Modeling (SDM) was used to analyze the relationships between humpback whale presence/absence and different predictors, including noise levels, oceanographic conditions, and primary productivity metrics. Results indicate that increased noise levels are associated with reduced humpback whale presence, highlighting noise pollution as a significant anthropogenic threat. This research contributes to the understanding of humpback whale habitat use in a relatively understudied migratory corridor and underscores the need to consider the complex interactions of environmental and anthropogenic factors in developing effective conservation measures.
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