LOCALIZATION OF NORTH ATLANTIC RIGHT WHALE SOUNDS IN THE BAY OF FUNDY USING A SONOBUOY ARRAY

A free-drifting 14-sonobuoy array was used to localize North Atlantic right whales ( Eubalaena glacialis ) in the Grand Manan Basin area of the Bay of Fundy. This area is a primary summer/autumn right whale habitat and overlaps an international shipping lane. The three-hour deployment on a single day provided two-dimensional localization of 94 right whale sounds based on arrival time differences determined from spectrogram cross-correlation analysis. The sounds were of two distinct types: tonal and gunshot. Maximum detection distances were about 30 km for both types of sound. The mean RMS location error was 1.8 km for tonal-type sounds and 2.5 km for gunshot-type sounds. The average RMS error was 20% of the average distance from the receiving hydrophones, the primary source of error being uncertainty in the sonobuoy positions.