Localization and tracking of vocalizing marine mammals are powerful tools for understanding and mitigating the impacts of anthropogenic stressors such as vessel noise on habitat use of cetaceans. A large-aperture hydrophone network has been installed in the Kitimat Fjord System, an ecologically, culturally, and economically valued marine environment in northern British Columbia, Canada. This network consists of four synchronized bottom-mounted hydrophones that permanently record and radio-transmit data to a land-based laboratory. An automated system has been developed which includes routines to localize transient bio-acoustic signals from three or more streaming hydrophones in near real-time. These routines comprise the correlation of hydrophone signals, the construction of a time lag model, and signal localization and error estimation from a spatial likelihood surface. The localization method was tested experimentally and subsequently applied to vocalizations from humpback whales, fin whales, and killer whales. Refractive and reflective sound propagation effects in the confined fjords are assessed using ray tracing propagation models. Automated localization results are compared to ground-truth data and shown to provide good accuracy.
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December 2019
December 31 2019
Automated localization of whales in coastal fjords Available to Purchase
Special Collection:
Acoustic Localization
Benjamin Hendricks;
Benjamin Hendricks
a)
1
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Victoria
, Victoria, British Columbia V8P 5C2, Canada
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Janie L. Wray;
Janie L. Wray
2
North Coast Cetacean Society
, 26 Cottonwood Road, Alert Bay, British Columbia V0N 1A0, Canada
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Eric M. Keen;
Eric M. Keen
b)
3
Marine Ecology and Telemetry Research
, 2468 Camp McKenzie Trail Northwest, Seabeck, Washington 98380, USA
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Hussein M. Alidina;
Hussein M. Alidina
4
Oceans Program, World Wildlife Fund Canada
, 259-560 Johnston Street, Victoria, British Columbia V8W 3C6, Canada
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T. Aaron Gulliver;
T. Aaron Gulliver
1
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Victoria
, Victoria, British Columbia V8P 5C2, Canada
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Chris R. Picard
Chris R. Picard
5
Gitga'at Oceans and Lands Department
, 445 Hayimiisaxaa Way, Hartley Bay, British Columbia V0V 1A0, Canada
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Benjamin Hendricks
1,a)
Janie L. Wray
2
Eric M. Keen
3,b)
Hussein M. Alidina
4
T. Aaron Gulliver
1
Chris R. Picard
5
1
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Victoria
, Victoria, British Columbia V8P 5C2, Canada
2
North Coast Cetacean Society
, 26 Cottonwood Road, Alert Bay, British Columbia V0N 1A0, Canada
3
Marine Ecology and Telemetry Research
, 2468 Camp McKenzie Trail Northwest, Seabeck, Washington 98380, USA
4
Oceans Program, World Wildlife Fund Canada
, 259-560 Johnston Street, Victoria, British Columbia V8W 3C6, Canada
5
Gitga'at Oceans and Lands Department
, 445 Hayimiisaxaa Way, Hartley Bay, British Columbia V0V 1A0, Canada
a)
Electronic mail: [email protected]
b)
Also at: North Coast Cetacean Society, 26 Cottonwood Road, Alert Bay, BC V0N 1A0, Canada.
J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 146, 4672–4686 (2019)
Article history
Received:
January 22 2019
Accepted:
May 02 2019
Citation
Benjamin Hendricks, Janie L. Wray, Eric M. Keen, Hussein M. Alidina, T. Aaron Gulliver, Chris R. Picard; Automated localization of whales in coastal fjords. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 1 December 2019; 146 (6): 4672–4686. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.5138125
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