A Permanent Automated Real-Time Passive Acoustic Monitoring System for Bottlenose Dolphin Conservation in the Mediterranean Sea

Marco Brunoldi; Giorgio Bozzini; Alessandra Casale; Pietro Corvisiero; Daniele Grosso; Nicodemo Magnoli; Jessica Alessi; Carlo Nike Bianchi; Alberta Mandich; Carla Morri; Paolo Povero; Maurizio Wurtz; Christian Melchiorre; Gianni Viano; Valentina Cappanera; Giorgio Fanciulli; Massimiliano Bei; Nicola Stasi; Mauro Taiuti

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0145362

A Permanent Automated Real-Time Passive Acoustic Monitoring System for Bottlenose Dolphin Conservation in the Mediterranean Sea

PLoS One. 2016 Jan 20;11(1):e0145362. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0145362. eCollection 2016.

Authors

Marco Brunoldi¹, Giorgio Bozzini¹, Alessandra Casale¹, Pietro Corvisiero¹, Daniele Grosso¹, Nicodemo Magnoli¹, Jessica Alessi², Carlo Nike Bianchi², Alberta Mandich², Carla Morri², Paolo Povero², Maurizio Wurtz², Christian Melchiorre³, Gianni Viano³, Valentina Cappanera⁴, Giorgio Fanciulli⁴, Massimiliano Bei⁵, Nicola Stasi⁵, Mauro Taiuti¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, University of Genova, Genova, Italy.
² Department of the Earth, Environment and Life Science, University of Genova, Genova, Italy.
³ SOFTECO Sismat S.r.l, Genova, Italy.
⁴ Area Marina Protetta di Portofino, Ministry for the Environment and for the Protection of Territory and Sea, Santa Margherita Ligure, Genova, Italy.
⁵ Direzione Marittima di Genova, Ministry for the Infrastructures and Transport, Genova, Italy.

Abstract

Within the framework of the EU Life+ project named LIFE09 NAT/IT/000190 ARION, a permanent automated real-time passive acoustic monitoring system for the improvement of the conservation status of the transient and resident population of bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) has been implemented and installed in the Portofino Marine Protected Area (MPA), Ligurian Sea. The system is able to detect the simultaneous presence of dolphins and boats in the area and to give their position in real time. This information is used to prevent collisions by diffusing warning messages to all the categories involved (tourists, professional fishermen and so on). The system consists of two gps-synchronized acoustic units, based on a particular type of marine buoy (elastic beacon), deployed about 1 km off the Portofino headland. Each one is equipped with a four-hydrophone array and an onboard acquisition system which can record the typical social communication whistles emitted by the dolphins and the sound emitted by boat engines. Signals are pre-filtered, digitized and then broadcast to the ground station via wi-fi. The raw data are elaborated to get the direction of the acoustic target to each unit, and hence the position of dolphins and boats in real time by triangulation.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Acoustics / instrumentation*
Animals
Bottle-Nosed Dolphin / physiology*
Computer Systems
Conservation of Natural Resources / methods
Mediterranean Sea
Ships
Sound Spectrography / instrumentation
Sound Spectrography / methods
Vocalization, Animal / physiology*

Grants and funding

This work has been entirely funded by the European Commission within the framework of the ARION project (grant number: LIFE09 NAT/IT/000190 ARION). The funding organization did not play any role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript and only provided financial support in the form of authors’ salaries and research materials. The authors Christian Melchiorre (C. Melchiorre) and Gianni Viano (GV) are employed by the commercial IT company named Softeco Sismat S.r.l. Softeco Sismat S.r.l. is one of the four beneficiaries of the project: 1. University of Genova (coordinating beneficiary) 2. Direzione Marittima di Genova (associated beneficiary) 3. Portofino Marine Protected Area (associated beneficiary) 4. Softeco Sismat S.r.l. (associated beneficiary) The funder provided support in the form of salaries for authors C. Melchiorre and GV, but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of these authors are articulated in the “author contributions” section.