Sound recording acoustic tags attached to marine animals are commonly used in behavioural studies. Measuring ambient noise is of interest to understand responses of marine mammals to anthropogenic underwater sound, or to assess their communication space. Noise of water flowing around the tag reflects the speed of the animal, but hinders ambient noise measurement. Here we describe a correlation-based method for stereo acoustic tags to separate the relative contributions of flow and ambient noise. The uncorrelated part of the noise measured in DTAG recordings related well to animal swim speed of a humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae), thus providing a robust measure of flow noise over a wide frequency bandwidth. By removing measurements affected by flow noise, consistent ambient noise estimates were made for two killer whales (Orcinus orca) with DTAGs attached simultaneously. The method is applicable to any multi-channel acoustic tag, enabling application to a wide range of marine species.
ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT
METHODS & TECHNIQUES|
01 January 2016
Separating underwater ambient noise from flow noise recorded on stereo acoustic tags attached to marine mammals
Alexander M. von Benda-Beckmann
,
Alexander M. von Benda-Beckmann
*
1
TNO Acoustics and Sonar, Oude Waalsdorperweg 63, 2597 AK, The Hague, The Netherlands.
*Author for correspondence: (sander.vonbenda@tno.nl)
Search for other works by this author on:
Paul J. Wensveen,
Paul J. Wensveen
2
Sea Mammal Research Unit, Scottish Oceans Institute, University of St Andrews, Fife, KY16 8LB, Scotland
Search for other works by this author on:
Filipa I.P. Samara,
Filipa I.P. Samara
2
Sea Mammal Research Unit, Scottish Oceans Institute, University of St Andrews, Fife, KY16 8LB, Scotland
Search for other works by this author on:
S. Peter Beerens,
S. Peter Beerens
1
TNO Acoustics and Sonar, Oude Waalsdorperweg 63, 2597 AK, The Hague, The Netherlands.
Search for other works by this author on:
Patrick J. O. Miller
Patrick J. O. Miller
2
Sea Mammal Research Unit, Scottish Oceans Institute, University of St Andrews, Fife, KY16 8LB, Scotland
Search for other works by this author on:
Alexander M. von Benda-Beckmann
*
1
TNO Acoustics and Sonar, Oude Waalsdorperweg 63, 2597 AK, The Hague, The Netherlands.
Paul J. Wensveen
2
Sea Mammal Research Unit, Scottish Oceans Institute, University of St Andrews, Fife, KY16 8LB, Scotland
Filipa I.P. Samara
2
Sea Mammal Research Unit, Scottish Oceans Institute, University of St Andrews, Fife, KY16 8LB, Scotland
S. Peter Beerens
1
TNO Acoustics and Sonar, Oude Waalsdorperweg 63, 2597 AK, The Hague, The Netherlands.
Patrick J. O. Miller
2
Sea Mammal Research Unit, Scottish Oceans Institute, University of St Andrews, Fife, KY16 8LB, Scotland
*Author for correspondence: (sander.vonbenda@tno.nl)
Received:
13 Oct 2015
Accepted:
22 May 2016
Online ISSN: 1477-9145
Print ISSN: 0022-0949
Office of Naval Research
(N00014-08-1-0984)
© 2016. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd
2016
J Exp Biol jeb.133116.
Article history
Received:
13 Oct 2015
Accepted:
22 May 2016
Currently Viewing Accepted Manuscript - Newer Version Available
01 Aug 2016
Citation
Alexander M. von Benda-Beckmann, Paul J. Wensveen, Filipa I.P. Samara, S. Peter Beerens, Patrick J. O. Miller; Separating underwater ambient noise from flow noise recorded on stereo acoustic tags attached to marine mammals. J Exp Biol 2016; jeb.133116. doi: https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.133116
Download citation file: