Automatic Detection of Beaked Whales from Acoustic Seagliders & Passive Autonomous Acoustic Monitoring of Marine Mammals with Seagliders [report]

David K. Mellinger, Holger Klinck
2011 unpublished
LONG-TERM GOALS The U.S. Navy's use of tactical mid-frequency active sonar has been linked to marine mammal strandings and fatalities (NMFS 2001) . These events have generated legal challenges to the Navy's peacetime use of mid-frequency sonar, and have limited the Navy's at-sea anti-submarine warfare training time. Beaked whales may be particularly sensitive to mid-frequency sonar. A mobile, persistent surveillance system that could detect, classify and localize beaked whales will help resolve
more » ... the conflict between the Navy's need for realistic training of mid-frequency sonar operators and the Navy's desire to protect marine mammal populations worldwide. Underwater gliders equipped with appropriate acoustic sensors, processing, and detection systems -"passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) gliders" -may offer a partial solution to the problem. The acoustically-equipped Seaglider™ from the Applied Physics Laboratory of the University of Washington (APL-UW) is one such platform. A Seaglider can travel about 20 km/day through the water for a period of weeks to months, dive from the surface to 1000 m and back in a few hours, and use two-way satellite (Iridium) telemetry for data and command transfer. This makes it potentially highly useful for the long-term goal of this project, mitigating impacts of Navy operations on marine mammals. OBJECTIVES The objective of this effort is to develop techniques for detection and classification of odontocetes echolocation clicks and especially beaked whale sounds for the PAM Seaglider. Because any methods developed must run in the operational environment of the Seaglider, they must have a low average computational cost because of the limited processing power and battery life of the Seaglider. The performance of the detection and classification system will be evaluated on several field trials. Report Documentation Page Form Approved OMB No. 0704-0188 Public reporting burden for the collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to Washington Headquarters Services, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports, 1215 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 1204, Arlington VA 22202-4302. Respondents should be aware that notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person shall be subject to a penalty for failing to comply with a collection of information if it does not display a currently valid OMB control number. Same as Report (SAR) 18. NUMBER OF PAGES 11 19a. NAME OF RESPONSIBLE PERSON a. REPORT unclassified b. ABSTRACT unclassified c. THIS PAGE unclassified Standard Form 298 (Rev . 8-98) . Submitted. Estimating minke whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) boing sound density using passive acoustic sensors.
doi:10.21236/ada598543 fatcat:3pbmruehh5hy3ocbg42js2xvim