Scientists now listening for whales in New York waters with real-time acoustic buoy
Scientists working for WCS’s (Wildlife Conservation Society) New York Aquarium, which is located in Coney Island, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) now have an ear for the New York region’s biggest voices and singers: the whales of New York Bight.
On June 23, the WCS New York Aquarium-WHOI team successfully deployed a high-tech acoustic monitoring buoy in New York waters that will enable scientists to eavesdrop on some of the world’s largest animals.
The buoy itself is four feet in diameter and its mast stands six feet above the sea surface. It is connected with patented “stretch hoses” to a weighted frame that sits 125 feet below on the sea floor. The frame carries a unique acoustic instrument that records and processes sound from an underwater microphone called a hydrophone. Information from detected sounds is transmitted from the instrument to the buoy through the stretch hoses, and to shore through the Iridium satellite system. The buoy is located between two major shipping lanes entering New York Harbor, 22 miles south of Fire Island’s west end.