Provide a Vessel to Conduct Observations and Deploy Sound Source for a Behavioral Response Study of Cetaceans off Southern California in 2011 [report]

John Calambokidis
2012 unpublished
Award Number: N000141110565 http://www.SOCAL-BRS.org LONG-TERM GOALS The long term goal of the SOCAL Behavioral Response Study is to determine how cetaceans respond to naval sounds, specifically mid-frequency sonar, to better evaluate impacts and develop strategies for mitigation. SOCAL-11 was the second year of this proposed multi-year study. The goal of this specific grant was to provide a vessel to serve as an observational platform and as a base of operations for a sound source and also
more » ... ort for chartering a vessel for use of a towed array to be used in the Behavioral Response Study conducted off Southern California in summer 2011. Other components of this work were included in other separate grants to the various groups involved in the collaborative study and this report addresses just the vessel to serve as a base of operations and the primary platform for the observation and sound source. OBJECTIVES This grant provided essential support for the SOCAL-BRS operations in 2011. This was the second year of the proposed 5-year SOCAL Behavioral Response Study for southern California which began in 2010 (SOCAL-10) to examine the impacts of anthropogenic sounds on local marine mammal species and represents a collaborative effort among a number of parties including Cascadia, Southall Environmental Associates, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI), Southwest Fisheries Science Center (SWFSC), Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC), and Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO). Similar studies have been conducted at the AUTEC range and are currently underway in the Mediterranean Sea, all built around a model in which species of interest are fitted with the suction cupattached tags to record exposure to sound and detailed data on underwater behavior in reaction to these sounds. These efforts have included behavioral observation from both the tag deployment vessel and the source vessel, and in some cases passive acoustic monitoring via an instrumented range, a towed array, or both. Overall objectives of the SOCAL BRS are to obtain new data on the response of a variety of species of marine mammals to Navy sonar to aid the Navy and NOAA in assessing the impact of these activities and ways they might be mitigated.
doi:10.21236/ada573320 fatcat:dzpuhyfbejfhdihaiyvmf7fflm