Latest Detections
Platform | Species detected in last 3 days | Operator |
---|---|---|
Santa Barbara Channel buoy | Fin and humpback whales | Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution |
New York Bight NW buoy | Fin whale | Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution |
Martha's Vineyard buoy | Fin and right whales | Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution |
Atlantic City buoy | Fin, right and humpback whales | Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution |
Cox Ledge Slocum glider | Fin whale | Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution |
Cape Hatteras buoy | Right whale | Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution |
Stellwagen Slocum glider | Fin and humpback whales | Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution |
Projects
Operation
The robots carry the digital acoustic monitoring instrument or DMON, a passive acoustic instrument that is capable of recording and processing audio in realtime. We have implemented a low-frequency detection and classification system (LFDCS; Baumgartner and Mussoline 2011) on the DMON to identify marine mammal calls from a variety of autonomous platforms, including gliders, profiling floats, and moorings (Baumgartner et al. 2013). The LFDCS produces pitch tracks of sounds, which describe changes in the frequency (pitch) of a call over time. Scientists typically examine spectrograms to identify marine mammal calls, such as the one below, and pitch tracks are derived from these spectrograms.Sounds
What sounds are we listening for? From the North Atlantic, here are a few examples of the fin, humpback, right, and sei whale sounds that we can detect. Many are sped up to make them easier to hear (e.g., "24x" means the sound has been sped up 24 times). Many of the sounds large whales make are very low frequency and are therefore difficult to hear over computer speakers. Speeding up the sounds raises the pitch (frequency), which makes them much easier for us to hear. For each species, the clips below are of the same sounds, just sped up at different rates. To hear the sounds at 1x (normal speed), try using a great pair of over-the-ear headphones.Platforms
The DMON/LFDCS has been implemented on several ocean robots (also called autonomous platforms):Near Real-time Analyst Protocol
Analysts are trained to review DMON/LFDCS data in near real time using a protocol so that results are standardized and consistent among analysts. Note that protocols are periodically updated. The protocol for detecting sei, fin, humpback, and right whales in the northwest Atlantic Ocean can be found here.LFDCS User Manual
If you are using the desktop version of the LFDCS, visit the LFDCS manual for more information.For more information
For more information about the DMON and LFDCS, see the following papers...Questions?
If you have any questions, please contact Mark Baumgartner at mbaumgartner@whoi.edu.