Marine Mammal Resource

Abstract

In the sonar world there is still a heavy reliance on the human ear for detection. To detect threats, the sonar operator must be familiar, not only with their acoustic signatures but also with the many and varied noises emanating from other sources in the ocean. These include noises of biological origin, particularly marine mammals. The Marine Mammal Resource is a hypertext document aimed at providing a reference set of sounds for training purposes. It contains textual descriptions on 18 different aspects of ecology for each of the species, summarizing the information available from the open literature. Subjects include vocalizations, habitat, distribution, hearing, and physical characteristics. The resource also contains images, diagrams, and movies for identification purposes. Data has been collated for over 40 species primarily found in the Atlantic Ocean. Information has been collated through a number of research organizations in America and Europe. The resource has application to the reduction of cetacean by-catch in trials, both in providing information in the derivation of environmental impact assessments pretrial and in the acoustic monitoring of the area during the course of a trial.