North Atlantic Right Whale Autonomous Acoustic Monitoring

About

Two Slocum gliders equipped with digital acoustic monitoring (DMON) instruments were deployed and operated in the mid-Atlantic Bight to the north and south of Cape Hatteras during the winter of 2018-2019. The gliders were remotely piloted to survey along pre-determined transects as local currents allowed, and sensor data were relayed to shore every 2 hours and posted on a publicly accessible website, dcs.whoi.edu. DMON data were reviewed daily by trained NAVFAC personnel, and the results of their review were posted on the same website, distributed to interested parties by text and email message, and made available for display in the Whale Alert app. Of the four baleen whale species monitored, humpback whales were the most commonly encountered, followed by fin, sei, and right whales. Only a single bout of right whale calls was detected by the glider deployed to the north of Cape Hatteras.