Navy Facility Studies Marine Mammal Behavior: "The U.S. Navy is sponsoring research that seeks to better understand how marine mammals respond to human-made undersea sounds.
Some of that research is taking place at Navy acoustic ranges like the Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center (AUTEC) in the Bahamas.
AUTEC's research is sponsored by the Chief of Naval Operations Environmental Readiness Division.
'The goal of our program is to study animals in their natural environment through the application of passive acoustics, which means we listen for the vocalizations that are made by animals and then try to use detections of vocalization as a proxy for the behavior,' said Dave Moretti, the principal investigator for marine mammal monitoring on the Navy's ocean-listening ranges, in an April 21 interview on Pentagon Web Radio's audio webcast 'Armed with Science: Research and Applications for the Modern Military.'
AUTEC usually employs hydrophones - listening devices similar to underwater microphones - for tracking submarines and other undersea vehicles. Now, the center is using hydrophones to listen to undersea creatures, like whales, said Moretti.
'We're trying to take the infrastructure of these facilities and apply it to passive acoustics for the study of marine mammals,' he explained."
