Acoustical Technology for the Study of Marine Organisms

Chronic undersampling of the marine environment, including both biological and physical components, has been and remains a major block to understanding how marine ecosystems function and how they respond to changes, whether natural or anthropogenic. Consequently, data-based models that accurately predict local variations in the abundance of plant and animal life in the sea are rare or do not exist at all. Such models would be invaluable in predicting variables such as acoustical and optical scattering in areas of tactical interest to the Navy. Our research directly addresses the root of this problem by attempting to advance acoustical technology as an aid in measuring spatio-temporal distributions of a variety of marine organisms in relation to the physio-chemical ocean environment.