The goal of this proposal is to invest in the capacity and infrastructure of the Southeast Coastal Ocean Observing Regional Association (SECOORA) glider observatory to develop, test, and implement autonomous passive acoustic monitoring of North Atlantic right whales in the South Atlantic Bight (SAB). Critically endangered North Atlantic right whales experience high mortality rates due to ship strikes and entanglement in fishing gear. These anthropogenic mortalities occur across the right whale habitat, including the northern foraging grounds, the Mid-Atlantic Bight migratory corridor, and the Southeast US calving ground off the coasts of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. A significant Unexpected Mortality Event beginning in 2017 has motivated the use of dynamic right whale management, a strategy that changes management based on near-real time visual and\/or acoustic monitoring. Despite the expansion of passive acoustic monitoring efforts and studies on the efficacy of this approach in right whales\u2019 northern foraging grounds, acoustic monitoring is much more limited in the Mid-Atlantic migration corridor and the Southeast US calving ground. Methods developed in the deeper waters of the foraging grounds may not be appropriate for use in the very shallow waters of the Southeast US calving ground. The proposed work would include the purchase of a passive acoustic monitoring science bay for use in a SECOORA glider, and four right whale monitoring missions on the Southeast US shelf during winter calving seasons. This project builds on recent test deployments of autonomous underwater vehicles called gliders, outfitted with an integrated passive acoustic recording system and onboard analysis that permits identification of the vocalizations of several baleen whale species, including the endangered North Atlantic right whale, in near-real time. These observations and experiments will support and expand existing networks for right whale monitoring led by collaborators at NOAA and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. UGA\u2019s Sidaway Institute of Oceanography (SkIO) The team will purchase a Teledyne Webb Slocum glider science bay equipped with passive acoustic monitoring instrumentation that can be integrated into the SECOORA and\/or SkIO gliders. The glider would be equipped to measure conductivity, temperature, and depth. UGA\u2019s SkIO and the University of South Carolina will conduct glider missions to monitor North Atlantic right whiles in the SAB for a total of at least four missions during winter calving seasons over the three-year project. The UGA SkIO team will lead glider operations, with assistance in deployment, recovery, and auxiliary data collection from the University of South Carolina team. The PIs will expand the impact of this work through engagement with SECOORA stakeholders and partners, and through communication designed to reach scientific and non-scientific audiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Funder: <\/strong>NOAA (in partnership with SE Coastal Ocean Observing Regional Association, SECOORA)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Amount: <\/strong>$185,000<\/p>\n\n\n\n PI: <\/strong>Catherine Edwards, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Marine Sciences<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The goal of this proposal is to invest in the capacity and infrastructure of the Southeast Coastal Ocean Observing Regional Association (SECOORA) glider observatory to develop, test, and implement autonomous passive acoustic monitoring of North Atlantic right whales in the South Atlantic Bight (SAB). Critically endangered North Atlantic right whales experience high mortality rates due […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[109],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-notable-grants"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-05 05:05:22","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/research-insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/research-insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/research-insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/research-insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/124"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/research-insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27980"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/research-insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27980\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27981,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/research-insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27980\/revisions\/27981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/research-insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/research-insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/research-insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}