Abstract:

This dataset contains a subset of LADC passive acoustic system buoys data (R4.x261.233:0005) which was collected in 2015 used to identify the three different species of beaked whales in the Gulf of Mexico. The data were collected at three locations in the Gulf of Mexico: Northern site, Southern site and Western site, respectively. The species of beaked whales are Cuvier’s beaked whale, Gervais’ beaked whale and an unidentified species that we labeled ‘BWG', which is Beaked whale Gulf. Those species were detected by using a three-stage detection algorithm. The first stage detector is based on multi-band energy comparison with a baseline threshold. The second stage detector performs a multi-attribute analysis on the first stage detection events to classify potential detections as clicks from a beaked whale family and separate them from other signals. The third stage detector separates identified beaked whales into different species using clustering analysis algorithm. These data were used to estimate and analyze densities of beaked whales in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Text files contain the locations of the buoys analyzed, and the excel files contain the detections from each buoy. The results of the first and second stage energy detector are presented in a separate dataset (R4.x261.233:0009).

Suggested Citation:

Natalia Sidorovskaia, Kun Li. 2018. Beaked whale detections from stage 3 using a three-stage energy detector and classifier in the northern Gulf of Mexico, June-October 2015. Distributed by: GRIIDC, Harte Research Institute, Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi. doi:10.7266/N7V69GNZ

Publications:

Li, K., Sidorovskaia, N. A., & Tiemann, C. O. (2020). Model-based unsupervised clustering for distinguishing Cuvier’s and Gervais’ beaked whales in acoustic data. Ecological Informatics, 58, 101094. doi:10.1016/j.ecoinf.2020.101094

Guilment, T., Sidorovskaia, N., & Li, K. (2020). Modeling the acoustic repertoire of Cuvier’s beaked whale clicks. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 147(5), 3605–3612. doi:10.1121/10.0001266

Li, K., Sidorovskaia, N. A., Guilment, T., Tang, T., Tiemann, C. O., & Griffin, S. (2023). Investigating beaked whale’s regional habitat division and local density trends near the Deepwater Horizon oil spill site through acoustics. Frontiers in Marine Science, 9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.1014945

Purpose:

These data were used to estimate and analyze densities of beaked whales in the northern Gulf of Mexico.

Data Parameters and Units:

txt file: latitude (decimal degrees), longitude (decimal degrees), depth (m); xlsx file: filename (given for each species; associated raw data file name that contains the click detected; filename format is as follows: 5dddFFFF.BBD 5 = year 2015, ddd = three-digit yearday, FFFF = hexadecimal index number, BB = buoy number, 01 to 10, D = disk number, 0 to 3), timebin (given for each species; time in seconds from start of corresponding file where click was detected)

Instruments:

Bottom-moored Environmental Acoustic Recording System (EARS) passive acoustic buoys

Individual Files: