1 DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A. Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. Acoustic Float for Marine Mammal Monitoring

Our goal is to develop an inexpensive acoustic profiler technology, QUEphone (Quasi-Eulerian phone), which allows accurate detection of the beaked whales and reporting in a short time frame by monitoring for the vocalizations of the target species. By converting a commercially available profiler float to a mobile platform and installing a sophisticated detection algorithm on a high-power DSP, we will test the QUEphones in appropriate beaked whale habitat, compare beaked whale detection results against the M3R (Marine Mammal Monitoring Navy Ranges), the Navy’s well-established acoustic surveillance system, and demonstrate the correct operation of the system as a tool for the Navy. OBJECTIVES The Navy’s interest is to minimize the impacts of its operations on marine mammals and to mitigate any adverse impacts those operations may have. Harm to marine mammals has been an especially prominent issue for mid-frequency sonars and beaked whales, after some of these whales stranded and died at times and places close to naval exercises [Barlow et al. 2006]. Currently under development by several teams, is to equip several ocean gliders with hydrophones and marine mammal call-detection software and send them out to monitor in real time, but the gliders are relatively expensive, at upwards of $100,000 each [Rogers et al., 2004]