title: Automated acoustic localization and call association for vocalizing humpback whales on the Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility.
abstract: Time difference of arrival (TDOA) methods for acoustically localizing multiple marine mammals have been applied to recorded data from the Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility in order to localize and track humpback whales. Modifications to established methods were necessary in order to simultaneously track multiple animals on the range faster than real-time and in a fully automated way, while minimizing the number of incorrect localizations. The resulting algorithms were run with no human intervention at computational speeds faster than the data recording speed on over forty days of acoustic recordings from the range, spanning multiple years. Spatial localizations based on correlating sequences of units originating from within the range produce estimates having a standard deviation typically 10 m or less (due primarily to TDOA measurement errors), and a bias of 20 m or less (due primarily to sound speed mismatch). An automated method for associating units to individual whales is presented, enabling automated humpback song analyses to be performed.
authors.affiliation: SPAWAR Systems Center Pacific, 53560 Hull Street, San Diego, California 92152-5001.
authors.forename: Tyler A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Helble
authors.affiliation: Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093-0701.
authors.forename: Glenn R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Ierley
authors.affiliation: Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093-0701.
authors.forename: Gerald L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: D'Spain
authors.affiliation: SPAWAR Systems Center Pacific, 53560 Hull Street, San Diego, California 92152-5001.
authors.forename: Stephen W
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Martin
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D000818:Animals; D001331:Automation; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003463:Cues; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D050640:Humpback Whale / Q000502:physiology*; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009010:Monte Carlo Method; D010140:Pacific Ocean; D011156:Population Density; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation*; D013017:Sound Localization; D013018:Sound Spectrography / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D013045:Species Specificity; D014159:Transducers; D014828:Vocalization, Animal / Q000502:physiology*