Research Symposia and Workshops

One of the goals of the DECAF project was to further research on passive acoustics methods to estimate cetacean density, by organizing open research symposia and workshops.  These meetings also served to disseminate latest research ideas to those interested in using them to monitor cetaceans.

Upcoming events

None planned at present.

Past events

Tutorial and research sympositum at 5th International Workshop on Detection, Classification, Localization (DCL) and Density Estimation (DE) of Marine Mammals

21st-25th August 2011, Mount Hood, Portland, Oregon, U.S.A.

As part of the 5th International DCL/DE workshop, we gave a one-day tutorial aimed at introducing the theory and methods of density estimation of cetaceans from passive acoustics.  Around 20 people attended.  A copy of all of the workshop material is given below -- we'd be happy to hear any feedback (good or bad!) on this material as we'd like to give more, similar workshops in the future.

• Overview of workshop contents. (web page)
  
• Copy of workshop material, including lecture slides, example datasets and code (zip file -- note this is a large file: approx 43MB)
  

• Information for participants in the tutorial (web page).
  
• The 5th DCL/DE workshop meeting web site.

Session at 159th meeting of Acoustical Society of America: "Methods, case studies, and results of passive acoustic estimation of the spatial density of animal populations"

19-23rd April 2010, Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A.

Talk slides/abstracts:

• Thomas, L., and T. Marques. 2010. Review of methods for estimating spatial density of animal populations with passive acoustics. Talk.
• Küsel, E.T., D.K. Mellinger, L. Thomas, T.A. Marques, D.J. Moretti, and J. Ward. 2010. Estimating density from single hydrophones by means of propagation modeling. Abstract.
  
• Mellinger, D.K., E.T. Küsel, L. Thomas, T. Marques, D. Moretti, P. Baggenstoss, J. Ward, N. DiMarzio, and R. Morrissey. 2010. Population density of sperm whales in the Bahamas estimated using propagation modeling. Abstract and talk.
• Klinck, H., N. Constantinou, D.K. Mellinger, and T. Rogers. 2010. Density estimation of leopard seals using a single stationary passive acoustic sensor. Abstract.
• Martin, S.W., L. Thomas, T.A. Marques, R.P. Morrissey, S. Jarvis, N. DiMarzio and D.K. Mellinger.  2010.  Minke whale boing vocalization density estimation at the Pacific Missile Range Facility, Hawaii.  Abstract.
  

1st International Workshop on Density Estimation of Marine Mammals Using Passive Acoustics

13th September 2009, Pavia, Italy. 
Hosted by the Centro Interdisciplinare di Bioacustica e Ricerche Ambientali.

This one-day workshop was linked to the 4th International Workshop on Detection, Classification and Localization (DCL) of Marine Mammals Using Passive Acoustics, and was attended by around 70 people.  The day started with a tutorial review, followed by 12 research presentations and ended with a useful discussion of the current state of knowledge and future directions.  The meeting agenda is available below, together with a copy of the review talk.  Our thanks to Gianni Pavan of CIBRA for hosting the workshop.

• Meeting agenda
• Abstracts booklet (for DCL and DE workshop - DE abstracts start on page 73)
• Talk slides:
  

• Review of methods for estimating cetacean density from passive acoustics. Len Thomas and Tiago Marques.

One-day symposium on Estimating Cetacean Density from Passive Acoustics

16th July 2009, San Diego, California, USA. 
Hosted by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO).

This event was attended by around 40 people.  9 talks were presented, copies of which are available below (as Adobe pdf files).  Our thanks to John Hildebrand of SIO for hosting the event.

• Meeting agenda and talk abstracts.
• Talk slides:
  
• Review of methods for estimating cetacean density from passive acoustics. Len Thomas and Tiago Marques.
• Estimating beaked whale density at AUTEC using tagged whale data. Tiago Marques, Jessica Ward, Len Thomas, Nancy DiMarzio, Peter Tyack, David Moretti and Stephen Martin.
• Estimating beaked whale density from single hydrophones by means of propagation modelling. Elizabeth Küsel, David Mellinger, Tiago Marques, Len Thomas, David Moretti and Jessica Ward.
• Density estimates from long-term autonomous recorders. John Hildebrand, Sean Wiggins, Lisa Munger, Mark McDonald and Len Thomas.
• Estimating whale abundance using sparse hydrophone arrays. Danielle Harris, Len Thomas and John Harwood.
• Estimates of the percentage of sperm whales missed on combined visual and acoustic surveys in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Jay Barlow and Shannon Rankin.
• Integration of Automated Acoustic Detection Methods into Towed-Array Surveys for Marine Mammals. Tina Yack, Jay Barlow, Shannon Rankin and Douglas Gillespie.
• Passive Acoustics as a Tool for Density Estimation of Delphinids: Great Potential and Great Limitations. Shannon Rankin, Jay Barlow, Julie Oswald and Tina Yack.
• Estimating minke whale boing density at Pacific Missile Range Facility, Hawaii. Stephen Martin, Tiago Marques, Len Thomas, David Moretti, Ron Morrissey, Nancy DiMarzio, Susan Jarvis, David Mellinger and Tom Norris.