Measuring the Acoustic Detection Range of Large Whales from an Ocean Glider to Improve an Acoustic Whale Alert System for use by the Offshore Marine Industry in Atlantic Canada

Researchers investigated a novel and in-development passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) system for use as a marine mammal detection technique. The work builds on a current research initiative between Dalhousie University and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI). The WHOI collaboration allowed strategic access to WHOI expertise and technology to carry out the work. The Dalhousie researchers are pioneering a system that combines autonomous underwater (Slocum) ocean gliders with the specialized WHOI- PAM system with utility to detect, classify, and report whale calls back to shore. The primary objective for this research was to evaluate the range-dependent accuracy of the glider-based PAM detection system.