Detection distances are critical for cetacean density and abundance estimation using distance sampling methods. Data from a drifting buoy system consisting of an autonomous recorder and a two-element vertical hydrophone array at ∼100-m depth are used to evaluate three methods for estimating the horizontal distance (range) to beaked whales making echolocation clicks. The precision in estimating time-differences-of-arrival (TDOA) for direct- and surface-reflected-path clicks is estimated empirically using repeated measures over short time periods. A Teager-Kaiser energy detector is used to improve estimates of TDOA for surface-reflected signals. Simulations show that array tilt in the direction of the source cannot be reliably estimated given this array geometry and these measurements of TDOA error, which means that range cannot be reliably estimated. If array tilt can be reduced to less than 0.5°, range can be reliably estimated up to ∼3000 m. If array depth is increased to 200 m and array tilt is less than 1°, range can be reliably estimated up to ∼5000 m. Prior information on the depth of vocalizing beaked whales and estimates of declination angle can be used to precisely estimate range, but different analytical methods are required to avoid bias and to treat distributions of depth probabilistically.

1.
Arranz
,
P.
,
Aguilar Soto
,
N.
,
Madsen
,
P. T.
,
Brito
,
A.
,
Bordes
,
F.
, and
Johnson
,
M.
(
2011
). “
Following a foraging fish-finder: Fine-scale habitat use of deep-diving Blainville's beaked whales revealed by echolocation
,”
PLoS One
6
(
12
),
e28353
.
2.
Baird
,
R. W.
,
Webster
,
D. L.
,
McSweeney
,
D. J.
,
Ligon
,
A. D.
,
Schorr
,
G. S.
, and
Barlow
,
J.
(
2006
). “
Diving behaviour and ecology of Cuvier's (Ziphius cavirostris) and Blainville's beaked whales (Mesoplodon densirostris) in Hawai'i
,”
Can. J. Zool.
84
,
1120
1128
.
3.
Barlow
,
J.
,
Ferguson
,
M.
,
Perrin
,
W. F.
,
Ballance
,
L. T.
,
Gerrodette
,
T.
,
Joyce
,
G.
,
MacLeod
,
C. D.
,
Mullin
,
K.
,
Palka
,
D. L.
, and
Waring
,
G.
(
2006
). “
Abundance and density of beaked and bottlenose whales (family Ziphiidae)
,”
J. Cetacean Res. Manage.
7
,
263
270
.
4.
Barlow
,
J.
,
Tyack
,
P. L.
,
Johnson
,
M. P.
,
Baird
,
R. W.
,
Schorr
,
G. S.
,
Andrews
,
R. D.
, and
Aguilar de Soto
,
N.
(
2013
). “
Detection probabilities for acoustic surveys of Cuvier's and Blaineville's beaked whales
,”
J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
134
(
3
),
2486
2496
.
5.
Baumann-Pickering
,
S.
,
McDonald
,
M. A.
,
Simonis
,
A. E.
,
Berga
,
A. S.
,
Merkens
,
K. P. B.
,
Oleson
,
E. M.
,
Roch
,
M. A.
,
Wiggins
,
S. M.
,
Rankin
,
S.
,
Yack
,
T. M.
, and
Hildebrand
,
J. A.
(
2013
). “
Species-specific beaked whale echolocation signals
,”
J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
134
,
2293
2301
.
6.
Baumann-Pickering
,
S.
,
Roch
,
M. A.
,
Brownell
,
R. L.
, Jr.
,
Simonis
,
A. E.
,
McDonald
,
M. A.
,
Solsona-Berga
,
A.
,
Oleson
,
E. M.
,
Wiggins
,
S. M.
, and
Hildebrand
,
J. A.
(
2014
). “
Spatio-temporal patterns of beaked whale echolocation signals in the North Pacific
,”
PloS One
9
(
1
),
e86072
.
7.
Buckland
,
S. T.
,
Anderson
,
D. R.
,
Burnham
,
K. P.
,
Laake
,
J. L.
,
Borchers
,
D. L.
, and
Thomas
,
L.
(
2001
).
Introduction to Distance Sampling: Estimating Abundance of Biological Populations
(
Oxford University Press
,
Oxford
), pp.
1
432
.
8.
Cato
,
D. H.
(
1998
). “
Simple methods of estimating source levels and locations of marine animal sounds
,”
J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
104
,
1667
1678
.
9.
Griffiths
,
E. T.
, and
Barlow
,
J.
(
2015
). “
Equipment performance report for the drifting acoustic spar buoy recorder (DASBR)
,” NOAA Technical Memorandum NOAA-TM-NMFS-SWFSC-543, pp.
1
36
.
10.
Griffiths
,
E. T.
, and
Barlow
,
J.
(
2016
). “
Cetacean acoustic detections from free-floating vertical hydrophone arrays in the southern California Current
,”
J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
140
,
EL399
EL404
.
11.
Kaiser
,
J. F.
(
1993
). “
Some useful properties of Teager's energy operators
,” in
ICASSP, IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing
, Vol.
3
, pp.
149
152
.
12.
Küsel
,
E. T.
,
Mellinger
,
D. K.
,
Thomas
,
L.
,
Marques
,
T. A.
,
Moretti
,
D. J.
, and
Ward
,
J.
(
2011
). “
Cetacean population density estimation from single fixed sensors using passive acoustics
,”
J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
129
,
3610
3622
.
13.
Leaper
,
R.
,
Chappell
,
J.
, and
Gordon
,
J.
(
1992
).
The Development of Practical Techniques for Surveying Sperm Whale Populations Acoustically
(
University of Oxford, Department of Zoology, Wildlife Conservation Research Unit
,
Oxford
).
14.
MacLeod
,
C.
,
Perrin
,
W. F.
,
Pitman
,
R.
,
Barlow
,
J.
,
Ballance
,
L. T.
,
D'Amico
,
A.
,
Gerrodette
,
T.
,
Joyce
,
G.
,
Mullin
,
K. D.
,
Palka
,
D. L.
, and
Waring
,
G. T.
(
2006
). “
Known and inferred distributions of beaked whale species (Cetacean: Ziphiidae)
,”
J. Cetacean Res. Manage.
7
,
271
286
.
15.
Marques
,
T. A.
,
Thomas
,
L.
,
Martin
,
S. W.
,
Mellinger
,
D. K.
,
Ward
,
J. A.
,
Moretti
,
D. J.
,
Harris
,
D.
, and
Tyack
,
P. L.
(
2013
). “
Estimating animal population density using passive acoustics
,”
Biol. Rev.
88
(
2
),
287
309
.
16.
Marques
,
T. A.
,
Thomas
,
L.
,
Ward
,
J.
,
DiMarzio
,
N.
, and
Tyack
,
P. I.
(
2009
). “
Estimating cetacean population density using fixed passive acoustic sensors: An example with Blainville's beaked whales
,”
J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
125
,
1982
1994
.
17.
Moretti
,
D.
,
DiMarzio
,
N.
,
Morrissey
,
R.
,
Ward
,
J.
, and
Jarvis
,
S.
(
2006
). “
Estimating the density of Blainville's beaked whale (Mesoplodon densirostris) in the Tongue of the Ocean (TOTO) using passive acoustics
,” in
Proceedings of the Oceans'06 MTS/IEEE-Boston
, Boston, MA.
18.
Moretti
,
D.
,
Marques
,
T.
,
Thomas
,
L.
,
DiMarzio
,
N.
,
Dilley
,
A.
,
Morrissey
,
R.
,
McCarthy
,
E.
,
Ward
,
J.
, and
Jarvis
,
S.
(
2010
). “
A dive counting density estimation method for Blainville's beaked whale (Mesoplodon densirostris) using a bottom-mounted hydrophone field as applied to a mid-frequency active (MFA) sonar operation
,”
Appl. Acoust.
71
,
1036
1042
.
19.
R Core Team.
(
2013
). “
R: A language and environment for statistical computing
” (R Foundation of Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria), Available at http://www.R-project.org/ (Last viewed 6/1/2017).
20.
Schorr
,
G. S.
, and
Falcone
,
E. A.
(2017) (personal communication).
21.
Thode
,
A.
,
Mellinger
,
D. K.
,
Stienessen
,
S.
,
Martinez
,
A.
, and
Mullin
,
K.
(
2002
). “
Depth-dependent acoustic features of diving sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) in the Gulf of Mexico
,”
J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
112
,
308
321
.
22.
Tyack
,
P. L.
,
Johnson
,
M.
,
Soto
,
N. A.
,
Sturlese
,
A.
, and
Madsen
,
P. T.
(
2006
). “
Extreme diving behaviour of beaked whales
,”
J. Exp. Biol.
209
,
4238
4253
.
23.
Yack
,
T. M.
,
Barlow
,
J.
,
Calambokidis
,
J.
,
Southhall
,
B.
, and
Coates
,
S.
(
2013
). “
Passive acoustic monitoring using a towed hydrophone array results in identification of a previously unknown beaked whale habitat
,”
J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
134
,
2589
2595
.
24.
Zimmer
,
W. M.
(
2013
). “
Range estimation of cetaceans with compact volumetric arrays
,”
J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
134
,
2610
2618
.
25.
Zimmer
,
W. M.
,
Harwood
,
J.
,
Tyack
,
P. L.
,
Johnson
,
M. P.
, and
Madsen
,
P. T.
(
2008
). “
Passive acoustic detection of deep diving beaked whales
,”
J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
124
,
2823
2832
.
26.
Zimmer
,
W. M.
, and
Pavan
,
G.
(
2008
). “
Context driven detection/classification of Cuvier's beaked whale (Ziphius cavirostris)
,” in
New Trends for Environmental Monitoring Using Passive Systems
(
IEEE
,
New York
,
2008
), pp.
1
6
.
27.
Zimmer
,
W. M. X.
(
2011
).
Passive Acoustic Monitoring of Cetaceans
(
Cambridge University Press
,
Cambridge
), Chap. 6, pp.
198
236
.
28.
Zimmer
,
W. M. X.
,
Johnson
,
M. P.
,
Madsen
,
P. T.
, and
Tyack
,
P. L.
(
2005
). “
Echolocation clicks of free-ranging Cuvier's beaked whales (Ziphius cavirostris)
,”
J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
117
,
3919
3927
.
You do not currently have access to this content.