| What: | The 2015 DCLDE Workshop |
|---|---|
| When: | July 13 - 16, 2015 |
| Where: | SIO Seaside Forum, La Jolla, CA |
As during previous workshops, the talks will be organized into sessions with the following themes: Detection, Classification, Localization, and Density Estimation. In addition, we will have special time dedicated to the discussion of the workshops datasets. In addition to the oral sessions, we will also have a poster session. Posters will be on display during the entire duration of the meeting, allowing plenty of opportunities to discuss them with the authors, including during the poster reception on Wednesday July 15.
Passive acoustic towed array systems are relatively mature technologies that are being used commercially for monitoring and mitigation around industrial activities. There is a growing census amongst regulators and operators that some aspects of towed array PAM should be standardized. In this workshop we will present initial steps to develop an ANSI standard (and a template for an ISO standard) for towed array PAM through the Acoustical Society of America. A draft outline will be circulated before the workshop concerning various aspects of PAM: initial planning, hardware, software, operator training, real-time protocols, and evaluation/wrap up. The underlying strategy of the standard is to place stringent requirements on how PAM is reported, but not conducted (with some exceptions that will likely generate discussion). However, the standard can provide recommendations on “best practices” instead of rigid restrictions. During the workshop comments on the outline will be solicited from the group. Please see https://wp.me/P4j34t-a for further description of the standard.
Towed hydrophone arrays designed and built for passive acoustic monitoring of marine mammals have benefitted from multiple improvements in recent years. These arrays however, continue to rely on custom built components, are generally not interchangeable between recording systems and lack standard performance requirements to adhere to. This session will provide information and suggestions on current technologies and industry standards in sensors, audio communication protocols and telemetry techniques which may address these issues. Additionally, this session also seeks to solicit participation and input from the attendees on the specific kinds of array capabilities and components which may be adopted to provide a more universal array design and ensure cross compatibility with multiple recording systems. The end goal of this session will be to gather, compare and organize ideas into an agreed upon set of design requirements for a “universal as possible” array which will best satisfy the needs of those in the marine mammal community. Anyone who is interested in array design or applications is welcome to attend.