This project is refining methods for using the data housed in the Navy’s passive acoustic marine mammal monitoring data system, M3, to characterize whale behavioral responses to survey vessels and other disturbances, and to analyze fin whale vocalization behavior in the North Atlantic.

This project will test a suite of methods to identify calls of both baleen and toothed whales in tag data to identify which of the detected calls are associated with the tagged individual. This will help the Navy’s monitoring program to estimate densities and evaluate behavioral responses.

This project will enhance the shared software package, Raven-X, and increase speed and efficiency of bioacoustics data processing.

This project will focus on archiving an extensive set of passive acoustic data, collected over ten years, by the Scripps Whale Acoustic Laboratory under Navy funding. Work will be coordinated with National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). This effort will protect the Navy’s investment and ensure the continued availability of the data.

This effort will develop information needed to determine the feasibility of using animal cue rate (calling rate) and the cue stability for acoustic density estimation.

This project is working to demonstrate and refine a suite of density estimation methods using data from sparse arrays, in which sensors may be distributed evenly but widely over a large area of interest. Sparse array examples include Ocean Bottom Seismometers (OBS) and Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization International Monitoring System (CTBTO IMS) recorders.

This project is focused on demonstrating passive acoustic density estimation methods and validating these methods using concurrent visual density estimation techniques.

This project is reviewing the US Navy Marine Species Monitoring (MSM) program and will make recommendations for how future efforts can inform future Population Consequences of Disturbance (PCoD) analyses.

This project is working to provide a comprehensive, quantitative synthesis of the current state of knowledge on acoustic cue rates and cue stability for marine mammal density estimation from passive acoustics.

This project is focused on developing a computationally efficient model selection method that could expand the utility of data collected from behavioral response studies and improve the approach to grouping species for risk threshold criteria.

This effort is coordinating a group of density surface modeling (DSM) specialists to assess the varied approaches to and coordinate advances on using DSM models. These experts are focused on developing and implementing innovative approaches to improve spatial modeling methods used to characterize seasonal abundance and distribution of marine species, particularly in U.S. Navy training and testing areas.

The goal of this project is to demonstrate and validate a method for passive acoustic density estimation for cetaceans by combining data from instrumented and non-instrumented ranges.

This team will combine point transect methodology with available passive acoustic monitoring data to create population density estimates of calling blue and fin whales.

This project served as a “proof of concept” for density estimation of baleen whales using sonobuoy data. The development work completed under this project can be used to improve analysis of sonobuoy data in general. The final report summarizes best practices, including suggested changes to data collection, acoustic software modifications; and identified analytical approaches appropriate for working with arrays of sonobuoys.

This project developed a suite of automated signal conditioning tools for normalizing data sets from different ambient acoustic regimes prior to submitting such data to standardized automated signal processing systems.

This project developed automated ondontocete detectors and classifiers using both whistles and clicks. The detectors and classifiers developed during this project increase the effectiveness of analyzing passive acoustic monitoring data. These tools are now available for use by the Navy’s marine species monitoring program and the scientific community.

This project developed user interfaces and training courses to facilitate usage of the Ishmael signal-processing toolkit by Navy staff and contractors, reducing the need for expensive external expert staffing.

This project will develop tools to aid in extracting whale swim track kinematic data more efficiently from the Navy range hydrophone data. Main goals include developing an acoustic modeling software interface, automated track kinematics software, and automated classification of track information.