Marine

Listening for Marine Mammals

June 3, 2016 by Marine Directorate Communications No Comments | Category Marine Directorate general, Marine Directorate Science, Marine Planning, Marine Renewables, Research Vessel Surveys

The East Coast Marine Mammal Acoustic Study (ECOMMAS) array continued collecting data in 2016. On the 28th of April Alba na Mara sailed from Fraserburgh to deploy moorings at 10 station locations along the Scottish East Coast. The trip lasted 10 days and all the moorings were deployed successfully.

The marine mammal listening array extends from Latheron in the upper Moray Firth to St Abbs in Berwickshire. Each station contains three moorings positioned at 5, 10 and 15 km from the shore. Attached to each of these moorings are the marine mammal listening devices which make in-situ recordings of marine mammal presence/absence. One device in each cluster of three moorings also makes broadband acoustic recordings which can be used to identify dolphin species, and also provide information on background noise levels.

The ECOMMAS array has been deployed off the east coast yearly since 2013. The results of this work will allow Marine Scotland Science to get a clearer picture of what the distribution of the dolphin and porpoise populations look like, to help us understand whether major construction projects have any effect on this.

These moorings will be retrieved and re-deployed once more in late July 2016, and then finally recovered in November, to provide a total of seven months of marine mammal monitoring.

Robert Watret
GIS Analyst

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