Science Tools

There are three components of the sea bird and marine mammal program.
1. When Healy is transiting there will be 1-2 people on the bridge doing visual surveys of sea birds and marine mammals.
2. During CTD transects we will regularly deploy sonobuoys to record marine mammal calls.
3. During long steams between CTD transects we will tow an array of acoustic receivers called hydrophones. With these sensitive underwater microphones, we can hear the vocalizations of marine mammals like beluga and bowhead whales.
This image shows a hydrophone array being towed behind a ship.

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