PALAOA, a PerenniAL Acoustic Observatory in the Antarctic Ocean

• Main Authors: O. Boebel, H. Bornemann, L. Kindermann, H. Klinck, J. Plötz, H. Schubert, S. Riedel, A. Ziffer
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antarctic; Antarctic Ocean; Antarctic Peninsula; Pacific; The Antarctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.62.2336; http://www.awi.de/acoustics/Publications/pubs/Cruise_Report_ANT-LAND-05-06_PALAOA.pdf

Passive acoustic recordings offer the unique opportunity of year-round observation of marine mammals in the Antarctic Ocean by utilizing their vocalisations. Long-term recordings allow studying the acoustic repertoire of whales and seals continuously in an environment almost undisturbed by humans. It can be used to register species specific vocalizations, infer the approximate number of animals inside the measuring range, calculate their movements and examine possible effects of noise produced by ice activities and the sporadic shipping traffic on the acoustic and locomotive behaviour of marine mammals. To determine the contingent impact of anthropogenic noise on marine mammals (Committee on Potential Impacts of Ambient Noise in the Ocean on Marine Mammals, 2003), estimates of whale abundances resolved at regional, monthly and species levels are needed for accurate pre-cruise impact scenarios. Where appropriate, such scenarios may then be used to adjust cruises to minimally interfere with whales and their respective use of habitats. Long-term acoustic recordings from the Antarctic Ocean were obtained by moored recording packages along the Pacific coast of the Antarctic Peninsula (Sirovic, et al., 2004). Limited storage capacity allowed detection of low-frequency mysticetes calls only, while vocalisations