Abstracts

Advancements in low-power and high data capacity technology during the past decade have been adapted to autonomously record acoustic data from vocalizing whales over long periods of time. Acoustic monitoring of whales has advantages over traditional visual methods, especially in the Arctic where weather conditions make visual surveys expensive and seasonally limited. An autonomous acoustic recording package (ARP) is described that uses a tethered hydrophone above a bottom mounted frame. ARPs have been deployed at high latitudes to record baleen whale sounds in the Bering Sea and near the West Antarctic Peninsula. ARP data have provided new information on the seasonal abundance, and calling patterns of vocalizing whales.