LAUSR

The Littoral Acoustic Demonstration Center (LADC) consortium, founded in 2000, has collected underwater acoustic data in the northern Gulf of Mexico since 2001 using Environmental Acoustic Recording Systems (EARS) buoys. These hydrophone systems were developed by the U.S. Navy, and originally LADC could record underwater signals only up to 11.7 kHz. Since then the EARS have been upgraded several times and currently record up to 192 kHz, thus allowing recordings of not only sperm whale clicks and codas, but also signals of beaked whales and dolphins. One goal of LADC is to develop an acoustic method for identification of individual animals, with the goal of an “acoustic catalog” similar to the existing photographic catalog of individual whale flukes. Localization and tracking is an important component for acoustic identification. Some localization and tracking techniques and procedures developed and used by LADC will be presented and discussed.