Acoustic sensors developed at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and Clark's group at Cornell University can pick up these sounds. Researchers helped place buoys in shipping channels off the coast of New England last year to do just that. The connected underwater acoustic system is designed to detect a common call of the right whale, which is known to traffic these waters.
"There's a brain on the buoy," says Cornell's Clark, who helped conceive the project. He explains how the buoy system automatically sends each suspected whale call to his lab, where it can be scrutinized by human brains. If they decide it's a right whale, a phone call is then made to any approaching ships instructing them to take the proper measures—which almost always means to slow down. (Clark's team is currently working with the U.S. Coast Guard and the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration to make this process more sophisticated—alerting mariners on their computerized navigational maps with a blinking buoy.)
More recently, researchers from Analysis, Design & Diagnostics, Inc., of Jacksonville, Fla., joined the mission. Their aim is to expand the range of whale call frequencies that can be identified, allowing them to locate, and potentially save, more species of marine mammals. Two ships currently cruise Florida's Gulf Coast with processing systems that are linked to a hydrophone lying on the ocean floor. More sensors could be deployed from small boats, even dropped out of airplanes.
Last week, company president Gary Donoher submitted a proposal to the U.S. Navy, which is seeking help from an organization to do marine mammal monitoring at ranges throughout the world. In two or three years, he hopes his sensors will be working in real-time, 24/7.
"We are using the sound they make to help protect them," Donoher says, noting the difficulty of sorting out whale calls from the ocean's "cacophony of noise" as well as the problem of detecting whales when they aren't vocalizing. He points out a similar problem for heat sensing, because many species of whales can stay submerged for long periods of time.
Most experts agree that no single approach can do the entire job of keeping a lookout for whales. Donoher advocates combining "complementary technologies" to look, listen and feel for them. "Whether navy or commercial, if you are trying to protect marine mammals, you need multisensor capability," he says. "That is the ideal."
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2 Comments
Add CommentI understand the movement to ban the killing of whales, but I wonder if we realize the hypocrisy of this.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWe are quite willing to accept the death of many fauna throughout the world.
-cows, pigs and fowl are routinely killed in vast quantities for human consumption.
-numerous pests (mosquitos, flies) are routinely eradicated.
-hunting (sport and otherwise) is found quite acceptable
So,our objections to the killing of whales are not for moral reasons, but on more practical considerations. Why not admit this, rather than moralize on it?
George
George,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhales are one of the most intelligent, sophisticated, and peaceful species on the planet. Far more benign than humans.
Livestock species have been so altered by artificial selection over the thousands of years that they're completely developmentally retarded. Little more than meat with feet, unfortunately (for them).
Mosquitos & Flies aren't endangered. Also, they cause physical damage and disease wherever they go. They're needed as food, but individually, they're not so constructive to us that we hesitate to kill them when they attack us. Which they do.
Hunting is only found to be "quite acceptable" to hunters. It's tolerated by most, and seen as needless and unethical by many.
Morals are for people who lack ethics.
That's all.