UACE: Passive Sensing of Fish and Marine Mammals Using a Large-Aperture Coherent Hydrophone Towed Array

• Day: June 16, Monday
    Location / Time: A. TERPSIHORI at 18:40-19:00
• Last minutes changes: -
• Session: 03. Advances in acoustic measurement systems: Technologies and applications
  Organiser(s): Alessandra Tesei, Matthew Schinault, Purnima Ratilal
  Chairperson(s): Matthew Schinault
• Lecture: Passive Sensing of Fish and Marine Mammals Using a Large-Aperture Coherent Hydrophone Towed Array [Invited]
  Paper ID: 2289
  Author(s): Matthew Schinault, Sai Geetha Seri, Max Radermacher, Hamed Mohebbi Kalkhoran, Arpita Ghosh, Purnima Ratilal Makris
  Presenter: Matthew Schinault
  Abstract: Passive sensing of marine mammals and soniferous fish was demonstrated using a large-aperture, densely sampled, coherent hydrophone towed array system. The array was deployed during the Gulf of Maine (GOM) experiment in 2021 to provide real-time, wide-area ocean acoustic remote sensing. The GOM trial surveyed the Great South Channel and the continental shelf region south of Rhode Island, a critical habitat for various fish and marine mammal species. By leveraging coherent beamforming, feature extraction, signal classification, bearing-time trajectory association, and localization, multiple marine mammals and fish were detected, classified, localized, and tracked. Vocalizations were observed from 10 Hz to 50 kHz, allowing for the identification of a broad range of species. Low-frequency (6 kHz) signals corresponded to fish and baleen whale species such as Fin, Minke, and Humpback, as well as toothed whales, including Sperm and Killer whales. High-frequency (10 kHz–50 kHz) vocalizations from dolphins were also detected. The bathymetry of the survey area spanned both shallow waters (200 m) and deep waters (~3000 m). Given the varied source-receiver geometries relative to the array, several localization methods were employed, including moving array triangulation and Kalman filter techniques. Sources were localized, and their source levels were estimated using a parabolic equation-based acoustic propagation model for range-dependent ocean waveguides. In contrast to a single hydrophone, a towed array not only increases the signal to noise ratio and provides source localization, but also enables multiple source discrimination while gathering the spatiotemporal data necessary for accurate population density mapping.
• Corresponding author: Dr Matthew Schinault
  Affiliation: Northeastern University
  Country: United States