Underwater Surveillance of Marine Mammals and Their Environments

Autonomous Surveillance of Marine Mammal Populations in South Africa
Marine mammal activity and behaviour is greatly affected by human activity and environmental changes. It is therefore important for their conservation that they are observed and monitored, ideally across a large span of both time and area. Underwater passive acoustic sensors, possibly aided by above-water visual or thermal sensors, are intended to be used for this purpose. The aim is to develop a system whereby a body of water can be monitored and acoustic sources corresponding to marine mammal vocalisations and anthropogenic activity from within this area can be automatically mapped and tracked. The proposed methodology involves the use of two arrays of hydrophones, deployed statically in a body of water. The data from these will be processed with advanced beamforming techniques for a novel, persistent, wide-area solution, with the potential for increased robustness through data fusion with other sensors.