Acoustic Recording Tags
Whale
deaths caused by entanglement in commercial fishing gear and ship
strike are serious problems for endangered whale species. Under
the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act,
NOAA is required to reduce mortality from these impacts. Reducing
mortality requires an understanding of how whales use the water
column relative to these human activities. Researchers use state-of-the-art
multi-sensor, synchronous motion, acoustic recording tags (DTAGs)
and newly designed data visualization software (GeoZUI4D and TrackPlot)
to provide fine scaled data on the underwater behavior of whales
to aid in the mitigation of these impacts.
The
DTAG is a suction cup attached, synchronous motion, acoustic recording
tag developed by the Mark
Johnson at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. It provides
data on body orientation (pitch, role and heading) and depth at
a rate of 50 times per second. It also records all sounds made
and heard by the tagged animal(s). After attachment, tags are
retrieved, data are downloaded and tags are ready for redeployment
on additional animals.
The
project is a collaboration among NOAA, Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution, University of New Hampshire, Duke University, the
University of Hawaii, the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies, the International Fund for Animal Welfare
and the Whale Center of New England. Financial support was provided
by the National Marine Sanctuary Program and NOAA Fisheries Northeast
Regional Office.
Humpback whale with DTAG on its back.
DTAG
is attached to the whale by means of suction cups. It is placed
there from an inflatable boat using a 45 foot carbon fiber pole.
GeoZUI4D - GeoZUI4D is a software application developed at the
University of New Hampshire's Advanced Visualization Laboratory
for interacting with time-varying geospatial data. When combined
with data derived from the DTAG, it allows the creation of a virtual
whale that moves in the exact manner of the tagged whales. In
addition, GeoZui4D allows the incorporation of other geospatial
data, such as ship movements taken from radar or the U. S. Coast
Guard's Universal Shipborne Automatic Identification System (AIS)
for ships >300 gross tons. A feature of the software developed
for this project is the ability to provide constant distance readouts
from the tagged whale to any vessel in the data field.
Using
GeoZUI4D we can view the underwater behavior of tagged whales
(body motion, depth and sound data from the DTAG) with vessel
movements taken from RADAR and AIS, in real time. In this way
we can begin documenting the reaction of whales relative to the
movement of vessels and the sounds whales are hearing.
GeoZui4D
can also join humpback whale dive tracks and behavior with data
on bottom topography to view and understand whale behavior relative
to threats form fishing gear in the water column. For example,
we have shown humpback whales dive directly to the bottom, turn
on their side, and forage in contact with the seabed. These data
and visualization of behavior have been instrumental in formulating
plans to reduce the threat of whale entanglement.
Credit: Colin Ware, UNH.
TrackPlot
- TrackPlot is custom software developed for the project by Colin
Ware at UNH's Advanced Visualization Laboratory. The software
provides 3D visualizations of whale data for understanding whale
behavior. Track plot is used when a static image can provide better
data visualization than the dynamic real-time, visualizations
provided by GeoZUI4D.
TrackPlot
showing several hours of humpback foraging data in 3D. Ribbon
shows the track of the animals. Yellow ribbon sections indicate
side rolls. Red and blue polygons depict fluke strokes.
-
Wiley, David N., Ware, Colin, Barton, Kira L., Shorter, Kenneth
A., Johnson, Mark P; Arsenault, Roland, Moller, Just C, Weinrich,
Mason. 2005. Underwater behavior of humpback whales in a western
North Atlantic foraging area. 2005. Presentation at the 16th
Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals, San Diego,
CA, December 12-16, 2005.
-
Arsenault, Roland, Wiley, David N., Ware, Colin, Barton, Kira,
Shorter, Kenneth A., Johnson, Mark P., Moller, Just C., Plumlee,
Matthew, and Sardi, Katherine. 2005. GeoZui4D: A new method
for viewing multisensor tag-derived data to investigate the
underwater behavior of marine mammals. Presentation at the 16th
Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals, San Diego,
CA, December 12-16, 2005
- Stimpert,
A.K., Wiley, D.N., Shorter, K.A., Barton, K.L., Johnson, M.P.,
Ware, C., Arsenault, R., Au, W.W.L. submitted. Linking sound
production and dive behavior in feeding humpback whales. 151st
Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Providence, RI,
June 5-9, 2006. [upcoming meeting]
- Stimpert,
A.K.; Wiley, D.N.; Shorter, K.A.; Barton, K.L.; Johnson, M.P.;
Ware, C.; Arsenault, R.; Lammers, M.O.; Au, W.W.L. 2005. A novel
sound recorded in association with bottom feeding in humpback
whales. Presentation at the 16th Biennial Conference on the
Biology of Marine Mammals, San Diego, CA, December 12-16, 2005.
Bill Watkins Memorial Session in Acoustics.
- Stimpert,
A.K., Wiley, D.N, Barton, K., Shorter, K., Johnson, M., Lammers,
M., Au, W.W.L. 2005. Sound production patterns from humpback
whales in a high latitude foraging area. Presentation at the
150th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America/NOISE-CON,
Minneapolis, MN, October 17-21, 2005. [**First Prize for Best
Student Paper in Animal Bioacoustics]
- Stimpert,
A.K., Wiley, D.N., Shorter, K.A., Barton, K.L., Johnson, M.P.,
Ware, C., Arsenault, R., Au, W.W.L. 2006. Deciphering whale
acoustics, or, the differences between humpbacks and toilet
plungers. 31st Annual Albert L. Tester Memorial Symposium, Honolulu,
HI, March 8-10, 2006. [**Best Paper Award]
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