Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution


San Francisco Buoy


Study objectives

A DMON buoy was deployed off the coast of San Francisco, California, on January 31, 2025 to monitor the presence of baleen whales in near real time by automatically detecting and identifying their calls. Whale detections, particulary detections of endangered blue whales, will be shared with scientists, government managers, and the public to help improve awareness and conservation efforts.

Project team: Mark Baumgartner (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), Rachel Rhodes and Doug McCauley (Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory), Kathi George (The Marine Mammal Center) and Ana Sirovic (Norwegian University of Science and Technology).

Analysts: Megan Wood







Platform location:




Daily analyst review:

DateBlue whaleFin whaleHumpback whaleOther
02/14/2025
02/13/2025
02/12/2025
02/11/2025
02/10/2025
02/09/2025
02/08/2025
02/07/2025
02/06/2025
02/05/2025
02/04/2025
02/03/2025
02/02/2025
02/01/2025
01/31/2025

Detected
Possibly detected
Not detected


Time series:




Diel plot:




Recent bacgkground noise:




Links to detailed information:

Automated detection data

DMON/LFDCS Diagnostics

Platform diagnostics





Questions

Please email Mark Baumgartner at mbaumgartner@whoi.edu. For a general desciption of the detection system and the autonomous platforms, visit robots4whales.whoi.edu.


Acknowledgements

The DMON buoy was expertly prepared and deployed by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's Mooring Operations and Engineering Group - special thanks to Jeff Pietro, Kris Newhall, Chris Basque, Nico Llanos, Jim Ryder, Jim Dunn, Don Peters, and John Kemp. Instrument preparation and testing was conducted by Mackenzie Meier, and critical engineering support was provided by Jim Partan, Loritta Slager and Keenan Ball (WHOI). Support for the deployment and operation of the buoy was generously provided by the Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory.

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