Cloud-Enabled Passive Acoustic Monitoring Array for Real-Time Detection of Marine Mammals

Passive acoustics is an effective, robust, non-invasive technique to detect and monitor vocalizing marine mammals. The tropical waters around Singapore are visited or inhabited by several species of marine megafauna. This paper presents a passive acoustic monitoring system developed for real-time detection of marine mammals in Singapore waters. The sys-tem is cloud-enabled, and contains machine-learning capable edge-computing systems with surface cameras and underwater hydrophone arrays which were deployed at Sisters' Islands in Singapore. A set of online and offline software tools have been developed to facilitate monitoring, visualization, annotation and data curation to support continual training of the detector. The paper discusses the design, architecture, development, and deployment of this system, offering a comprehensive solution to enhance the monitoring and study of marine megafauna in the region.