The PAMGUARD project was set up to provide the world standard software infrastructure for acoustic detection, localisation and classification for mitigation against harm to marine mammals, and for research into their abundance, distribution and behaviour. These may be a by-product of the activity (e.g. piling or explosives), or a tool (e.g. air guns used for seismic surveys in oil and gas exploration, or military/commercial sonar). To mitigate against harm to marine mammals, observers are often employed to visually scan the sea surface for the presence of animals. In the event of a sighting, procedures such as suspension/delay of activities may be implemented to avoid harm. Current Methods
Visual observations play a vital role, but marine mammals are difficult to spot on the sea surface, especially when weather and light conditions are poor. However, many marine mammals produce loud and distinctive vocalisations, which can often be detected more reliably than visual cues. For these species, passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) offers an effective means of detection. Furthermore, the creatures do not need to be on the surface to be detected. Why do we need PAMGUARD? While PAM software already exists, the source code is not freely available for others to help to expand and improve. This means that assumptions, and therefore margins for error, are not readily understood, that code evolves more slowly, or not at all, and source code improvements are at the mercy of the time and resources that the few responsible developers can commit. In the case of the military and some commercial organisations, detection, classification and localisation (DCL) technologies are in-house and protected. What is needed is an environment which raises the profile of PAM and creates a means of tapping into the intellectual resources of the research community. Industry and marine environmentalists are well aware of the need to upgrade and modernise.
