Automated detection of fin whale calls recorded with distributed acoustic sensing

Abstract

As the global biodiversity crisis intensifies, wildlife monitoring has become a necessity. From an oceanographic perspective, the tracking of baleen whales allows studies of their habitat use and can support call density estimates, which are indicative of ocean health. Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) is a promising observational technique that measures strain rates along a spare optical fiber with a spatial resolution of tens of meters to distances of ∼100 km. Over 4-days in November 2021, a public domain DAS dataset was collected on the submarine cables of the Ocean Observatories Initiative Regional Cabled Array off the coast of central Oregon. The experiment recorded the acoustic signals from tens of thousands of fin whale calls as well as blue whale calls, ship signals and T-phases. We will describe preliminary efforts to develop automated methods to detect and localize fin whale calls using small representative examples of the DAS data. Our longer-term goal is to extend this approach to the full data set to understand the sensitivity of DAS to fin whale calls as function of cable geometry and seafloor characteristics and to study the distribution of calling fin whales in coastal waters off central Oregon. [Work supported by ONR.]