The dependence of target strength of the northern right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) on the acoustic properties of blubber

• Main Authors: Miller, James H, Weber, Thomas C, Tuttle, Angela, Potter, David C
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository 1999
• Subjects: Whale Tracking; Marine Biology; Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology; Chivers; Parry; Eubalaena glacialis; Humpback Whale; Megaptera novaeangliae
• Online Access: https://scholars.unh.edu/ccom/947; http://scitation.aip.org/content/asa/journal/jasa/106/4/10.1121/1.427198

Whale detection and tracking using active sonar is a subject of recent study [J. H. Miller, D. C. Potter, T. Weber, and J. Felix, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 105, 992 (1999)]. In that previous work, the measured target strength of a northern right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) was found to be less than that measured for a humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) of the same size and aspect (about 0 and 5 dB, respectively). The difference was explained by modeling the thicker blubber of the right whale as a lossy layer in a plane wave reflection coefficient. However, values for the acoustic properties of the blubber were estimated from tissue properties of other mammals [R. C. Chivers and R. J. Parry, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 63 (1978)]. In April, 1999, a 60‐ton northern right whale named Staccato was found dead near Cape Cod. Blubber samples were acquired by the National Marine Fisheries Service and acoustic properties determined using a multi‐sensor core logger in URI Marine Geomechanics Laboratory. Sound speed and density data have been used to refine the plane wave reflection coefficient model and corroborate the earlier work. [Work supported by NMFS.]