Detection and Classification of Baleen Whale Vocalizations from Autonomous Platforms

摘要

Our long-range objective is to understand the oceanographic processes that influence the distribution of whales in the ocean. In support of this objective, we seek to develop new techniques and technologies that enable us to relate the occurrence and movement of animals to physical, biological, and possibly anthropogenic forcing mechanisms over long time scales. This work will ultimately improve our ability to predict whale distribution and bolster efforts to mitigate human impacts on marine mammals. Our research has three specific objectives: (1) Develop a platform-independent modular acoustic package capable of automated detection and classification of whale vocalizations and suitable for use on a variety of autonomous platforms; (2) Characterize the efficacy of several automated detector algorithms using a rich set of collocated visual and acoustic measurements collected in 2006 and 2007; and (3) Perform quantitative field trials to evaluate baleen whale detection performance in the context of other visual, acoustic, and environmental observations.