The goal of our collaborative project is to LISTEN which stands for long-term investigations into soundscapes, trends, ecosystems, and noise. We are collecting data from and deploying a network of underwater listening devices, or hydrophones, throughout the highly industrialized Gulf of Mexico. We are hoping to understand when and where marine mammals are found and monitor changes to their populations over time. This is particularly important in the face of climate change and the rapidly increasing human impacts on the Gulf of Mexico. Marine mammals are ecosystem sentinels, or indicators of ecosystem change. By monitoring their populations, we can also learn about changes in their ecosystem and better understand the ocean’s currents and water masses.

We are supported by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) to investigate the use of large commercial vessels as opportunistic sound sources for inference of local oceanographic conditions using deep learning algorithms to approximate traditional acoustic inversions. Two graduate students Vanessa ZoBell and Joe Walker are leveraging a large database of over 10,000 recorded commercial vessel transits through the Santa Barbara channel with associated sound speed profiles and AIS data. We are also working with a number of smaller agencies including the Port of Vancouver and Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary to improve methods for quantifying and predicting sound emissions of cargo ships and other large vessels, to help understand and manage anthropogenic noise impacts on the marine environment.

(TBD)