Passive Acoustic Methods for Tracking Marine Mammals Using Widely- Spaced Bottom-Mounted Hydrophones

摘要

This project developed and implemented methods to deal with two specific challenges associated with tracking marine mammals using widely-spaced bottom-mounted hydrophone arrays: (1) Multiple animals whose calls cannot be easily separated or associated, and (2) Insufficient receiver coverage, in which case standard time-of-arrival (TOA) tracking methods fail. Clicks and long duration calls (whistles or baleen whale calls) were both considered. Methods were developed in collaboration with the Marine Mammal Monitoring on Navy Ranges (M3R) program using data from the Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center (AUTEC) and the Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF). Beaked whales, minke whales, humpback whales, and sperm whales were the main species of interest.