MRI: Acquisition of an Acoustic Wave Glider for Coastal Research Grant uri icon

abstract

  • Overview: The Acoustic Wave Glider (AWG) is an unmanned ocean surface vehicle navigating by pre-programmed GPS software, which can be overridden by the researcher for manual adjustments via web interface. The AWG is a silent, mobile platform powered by solar and waves so no refueling is required. The instrument package for the East Carolina University (ECU) AWG will allow multiple and simultaneous measurements of the ocean environment (waves, currents, temperature, salinity, turbidity) and near-surface weather (air temperature, wind) while missioned to record the ocean soundscape and acoustically-tagged animals. Marine mammals, fish and invertebrates all make noise but many of these sounds in nature are undocumented due to the cost of ship time and behavioral shifts caused by vessel noises. The AWG will record the soundscape, both natural and anthropogenic such as ship traffic, ocean-based wind farms, bottom drilling, sand dredging, commercial fishing, and other anthropogenic activities. The natural soundscape with and without anthropogenic noises can be documented to determine human influence on the ocean ecosystem. Ocean communities can be documented acoustically with minimal intrusion by the researcher. An acoustic receiver will listen for tagged animals, and active tracking of tagged animals is possible. Presence of tagged animals (fish, sea turtles, marine mammals) will be documented in concert with environmental measurements and weather at that moment to determine continuously changing migratory habitat surrounding the animal. Some fish species, such as the sand tiger shark, aggregate around structure; clusters of tagged fish strongly indicate natural reefs or shipwrecks. Our overarching objective is to document ocean habitats and biologic communities in continental shelf and slope waters to determine static communities (e.g., reefs) and migratory pathways of highly mobile species (e.g., tuna, shark, marine mammals, sea turtle). Secondary objectives include providing data to oceanographers on environmental conditions during normal conditions and during storm events to enhance storm prediction models. An AWG advisory group will select missions. Missions may have multiple users and multiple but synergistic objectives, similar to a research cruise on a large vessel, but at a fraction of the cost. Packets of information containing system diagnostics, location, and present conditions needed for navigation will be sent via satellite to and from the AWG; data downloads of all instruments will be conducted following AWG retrieval. Data will be archived at ECU and provided to AWG users. A one-year embargo on data is proposed to minimize harm to the resource through commercial harvest or malicious intent. Intellectual Merits: The intellectual merits of the AWG are many. In situ soundscape analysis in ocean systems is fairly new and difficult to acquire unless the sampling platform is static. Unless specially equipped, research vessels often must shut down all electronic operations to allow soundscape measurements and recordings due to the sensitivity of the instruments, and the negative effects of vessel noise on organism behavior. The AWG allows non-obtrusive acoustic measurements of ocean communities including reefs, hard bottoms, sandy sediments, and pelagic waters. Storms and rainfall events can be analyzed for their impacts on ocean communities through acoustic analysis of organism responses; storm events (e.g., hurricanes and nor?easters) often cannot be sampled by vessel due to danger to life and equipment. Large predators can be acoustically tagged and followed; prey fields can be estimated using acoustic signatures. These signatures are characteristic of a particular species; most ocean species have never been recorded in the wild, and these recordings identified to species will be important for future research o

date/time interval

  • August 2014 - August 2017