Experiences from Using WhaleWatcher™, a Marine Mammal Monitoring System Based on Single Sensor Seismic Streamers

Seismic contractors follow IAGC guidelines and local regulations that require the presence of marine mammal observers (MMO) onboard seismic vessels. To aid these observers during periods of limited visibility, passive acoustic monitoring systems have been proposed. Such systems must have a large enough aperture to obtain high resolution and a high number of receivers to achieve sufficient signal-to-noise ratio. Developing, deploying, and operating such systems reliably therefore poses significant technical, operational, and logistical challenges. This is especially true when these systems must be towed in parallel with the seismic in-sea equipment. By having the system integrated into the streamer spread, the operational complications are avoided and accurate localization performance is achieved. In this paper, we give an overview of the system, and share some experiences from using it in the field. Examples include both the detection and localization of an underwater sound speaker, as well as real whales.