Observing marine mammal (MM) populations continuously in time and space over the immense ocean areas they inhabit is challenging but essential for gathering an unambiguous record of their distribution, as well as understanding their behaviour and interaction with prey species. Here we use passive ocean acoustic waveguide remote sensing (POAWRS) in an important North Atlantic feeding ground to instantaneously detect, localize and classify MM vocalizations from diverse species over an approximately 100,000 km(2) region. More than eight species of vocal MMs are found to spatially converge on fish spawning areas containing massive densely populated herring shoals at night-time and diffuse herring distributions during daytime. We find the vocal MMs divide the enormous fish prey field into species-specific foraging areas with varying degrees of spatial overlap, maintained for at least two weeks of the herring spawning period. The recorded vocalization rates are diel (24 h)-dependent for all MM species, with some significantly more vocal at night and others more vocal during the day. The four key baleen whale species of the region: fin, humpback, blue and minke have vocalization rate trends that are highly correlated to trends in fish shoaling density and to each other over the diel cycle. These results reveal the temporospatial dynamics of combined multi-species MM foraging activities in the vicinity of an extensive fish prey field that forms a massive ecological hotspot, and would be unattainable with conventional methodologies. Understanding MM behaviour and distributions is essential for management of marine ecosystems and for accessing anthropogenic impacts on these protected marine species.

The passive ocean acoustic waveguide remote sensing (POAWRS) technique is employed to detect and characterize the underwater sound radiated from three scientific research and fishing vessels received at long ranges on a large-aperture densely-sampled horizontal coherent hydrophone array. The sounds radiated from the research vessel (RV) Delaware II in the Gulf of Maine, and the RV Johan Hjort and the fishing vessel (FV) Artus in the Norwegian Sea are found to be dominated by distinct narrowband tonals and cyclostationary signals in the 150 Hz to 2000 Hz frequency range. The source levels of these signals are estimated by correcting the received pressure levels for transmission losses modeled using a calibrated parabolic equation-based acoustic propagation model for random range-dependent ocean waveguides. The probability of the detection region for the most prominent signal radiated by each ship is estimated and shown to extend over areas spanning roughly 200 km in diameter when employing a coherent hydrophone array. The current standard procedure for quantifying ship-radiated sound source levels via one-third octave bandwidth intensity averaging smoothes over the prominent tonals radiated by a ship that can stand 10 to 30 dB above the local broadband level, which may lead to inaccurate or incorrect assessments of the impact of ship-radiated sound.

To better understand fin whale vocalization behaviour in the Norwegian and Barents Seas, a large-aperture densely sampled coherent hydrophone array was deployed in late winter 2014 to monitor their vocalizations instantaneously over wide areas via passive ocean acoustic waveguide remote sensing (POAWRS). Here, we (i) provide a time-frequency characterization for different call types observed (20 Hz pulses, 130 Hz upsweeps, 30–100 Hz downsweep chirps, and 18–19 Hz backbeats); (ii) compare their relative abundances in three different coastal regions off Alesund, Lofoten, and Northern Finnmark; (iii) estimate the temporal and spatial distributions; (iv) source level distributions; and (v) probability of detection (PoD) regions for the more abundant 20 Hz pulse and 130 Hz upsweep call types. The fin whale vocalizations received over the diel cycle (24 h) were significantly more abundant by a factor of roughly seven off Northern Finnmark than the other two regions, associated with fish feeding activities. The source levels are estimated to be 190.5±7.4 dB for the fin whale 20 Hz pulses and 170.3 ± 5.2 dB for the 130 Hz upsweeps. We find that fin whales are capable of producing each vocalization type either independently or simultaneously with other types, and the 20 Hz sound production in the fin whales involves a mechanism that generates a significantly less-intense second-order harmonic of the fundamental.

Multiple mechanized ocean vessels, including both surface ships and submerged vehicles, can be simultaneously monitored over instantaneous continental-shelf scale regions >10,000 km 2 via passive ocean acoustic waveguide remote sensing. A large-aperture densely-sampled coherent hydrophone array system is employed in the Norwegian Sea in Spring 2014 to provide directional sensing in 360 degree horizontal azimuth and to significantly enhance the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of ship-radiated underwater sound, which improves ship detection ranges by roughly two orders of magnitude over that of a single hydrophone. Here, 30 mechanized ocean vessels spanning ranges from nearby to over 150 km from the coherent hydrophone array, are detected, localized and classified. The vessels are comprised of 20 identified commercial ships and 10 unidentified vehicles present in 8 h/day of Passive Ocean Acoustic Waveguide Remote Sensing (POAWRS) observation for two days. The underwater sounds from each of these ocean vessels received by the coherent hydrophone array are dominated by narrowband signals that are either constant frequency tonals or have frequencies that waver or oscillate slightly in time. The estimated bearing-time trajectory of a sequence of detections obtained from coherent beamforming are employed to determine the horizontal location of each vessel using the Moving Array Triangulation (MAT) technique. For commercial ships present in the region, the estimated horizontal positions obtained from passive acoustic sensing are verified by Global Positioning System (GPS) measurements of the ship locations found in a historical Automatic Identification System (AIS) database. We provide time-frequency characterizations of the underwater sounds radiated from the commercial ships and the unidentified vessels. The time-frequency features along with the bearing-time trajectory of the detected signals are applied to simultaneously track and distinguish these vessels.

Abstract:The vocalization source level distributions and pulse compression gains are estimated for four distinct baleen whale species in the Gulf of Maine: fin, sei, minke and an unidentified baleen whale species. The vocalizations were received on a large-aperture densely-sampled coherent hydrophone array system useful for monitoring marine mammals over instantaneous wide areas via the passive ocean acoustic waveguide remote sensing technique. For each baleen whale species, between 125 and over 1400 measured vocalizations with significantly high Signal-to-Noise Ratios (SNR > 10 dB) after coherent beamforming and localized with high accuracies (<10% localization errors) over ranges spanning roughly 1 km-30 km are included in the analysis. The whale vocalization received pressure levels are corrected for broadband transmission losses modeled using a calibrated parabolic equation-based acoustic propagation model for a random range-dependent ocean waveguide. The whale vocalization source level distributions are characterized by the following means and standard deviations, in units of dB re 1 µPa at 1 m: 181.9 ± 5.2 for fin whale 20-Hz pulses, 173.5 ± 3.2 for sei whale downsweep chirps, 177.7 ± 5.4 for minke whale pulse trains and 169.6 ± 3.5 for the unidentified baleen whale species downsweep calls. The broadband vocalization equivalent pulse-compression gains are found to be 2.5 ± 1.1 for fin whale 20-Hz pulses, 24 ± 10 for the unidentified baleen whale species downsweep calls and 69 ± 23 for sei whale downsweep chirps. These pulse compression gains are found to be roughly proportional to the inter-pulse intervals of the vocalizations, which are 11 ± 5 s for fin whale 20-Hz pulses, 29 ± 18 for the unidentified baleen whale species downsweep calls and 52 ± 33 for sei whale downsweep chirps. The source level distributions and pulse compression gains are essential for determining signal-to-noise ratios and hence detection regions for baleen whale vocalizations received passively on underwater acoustic sensing systems, as well as for assessing communication ranges in baleen whales.