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

Our goal is to develop an inexpensive solution to the problem of near real-time monitoring of marine mammals. We are developing an acoustic monitoring system, the QUEphone (Quasi-Eulerian phone), which is based on a commercial profiling float. By deploying a number of these inexpensive systems in advance of an operation, an area can be monitored for the presence of beaked whales and other species of concern. OBJECTIVES Acoustic methods are used increasingly often, in part because of some distinct advantages: the ability to detect animals underwater, to work at night and in poor weather, and to record the relevant signals and post-process them if necessary. Acoustic surveys have used two principal methods: Long-term recordings made using either cabled hydrophone arrays or moored long-term acoustic recorders to estimate the seasonal distribution of species, and hydrophone arrays towed behind a ship used to determine whether marine mammals are present at a given time. For real-time monitoring and mitigation, the towed array approach is most often used, but it suffers several drawbacks: Marine mammals are monitored in only one area-- close to the ship-- and ship time can be prohibitively expensive. Another alternative, currently under development by several teams, is to equip severa