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Ref.: SiPLAB Report 02/14, SiPLAB, University of Algarve,2014.
Abstract
The long term goal of this initiative is to contribute to sperm whale conservation by
developing an effective detection and localization system being able to feed information
into navigation systems for ship - whale collision avoidance. The EDELWEISS'14 sea
trial was an initial step toward this goal by acquiring acoustic data from a pinger to test
and validate source localization algorithms in configurations compatible with sperm whale
behavior and, if possible, obtain actual sperm whale vocalization acoustic recordings.
Weather conditions in the area limited the period and zone for effective work as well
as the number and duration of acoustic deployments. After several long runs up and
down along the west coast of Zakynthos Island no sperm whale could be detected and
therefore activities concentrated on simulating sperm whale dives using an acoustic pinger.
Receptions were made with two Acoustic Oceanographic Buoys (AOBs) during three days
which data sets are described in this report. The data shows well defined received pings
for relatively long periods of time and encompassing a variety of geometries both in
terms of source - receiver distance and source depth over deep water (1000 m or more)
areas. Although some technical problems arouse in the GPS of one of the AOBs and
synchronization problems in the other buoy, the data shows the potential for further
processing and algorithm testing as long as no precise localization is required.