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Distant Ears

September 17, 2013

Slocum gliders move horizontally by changing their buoyancy at the top and bottom of each pre-programmed dive. More importantly, they move through the water silently. This is allowing a team that includes WHOI scientists Mark Baumgartner and Dave Fratantoni to use gliders as remote platforms to autonomously record and identify marine mammal sounds and to report those detections to shore-side researchers via satellite. Visitors can see real-time results from a glider currently operating in the Arctic waters of the Chukchi Sea.(Image courtesy of Mark Baumgartner, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)