Eric Snyder
Abstract: Long-term acoustic analysis has proven to be a crucial tool for studying vocalizing marine mammals, particularly for those that are rarely visually observed in the wild. Some species, like Cuvier's beaked whales, are particularly difficult to study visually due to their deep diving behavior and the relatively short amount of time spent at the surface. We detect Cuvier's beaked whale echolocation clicks on arrays of hydrophones and use Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA) localization to determine the animal's position when the sound was emitted. A series of localized positions can be combined to recreate a whale's behavior while diving and foraging in the deep ocean. In this talk I will discuss a number of technical challenges that must be solved in order to use TDOA localization to recreate an animal's foraging behavior, including synchronizing clocks, determining precise instrument locations, and methods for correctly associating echolocation clicks across different hydrophones.
Contact: e5snyder@ucsd.edu