Acoustic Survey Of Irrawaddy Dolphin Populations In Chilika Lagoon: First Test Of A Compact High-Resolution Device

Irrawaddy dolphins (Orcaella brevirostris) being on top of the food chain are considered as a flagship species of Chilika. These cetaceans produce characteristic echolocation pulses that make them acoustically visible, night or day. Acoustic-based survey methods are found to be indispensable for surveying porpoises and dolphins in coastal precincts. This paper reports the first such collaborative attempt in Chilika by applying acoustic survey technology based on the design of an innovative compact and portable acoustic survey device designed for observation of groups of small cetaceans. The acoustic sensor system is housed in a "bird-cage" structure containing 3 hydrophones forming a main linear array, together with two more hydrophones forming a small 3-element triangle array with the central hydrophone, in a plane perpendicular to the linear array axis. It weighs 25 kg and is 3.6 m long, 30 cm in diameter, and can be deployed either vertically or horizontally with buoys and a weight. A high-speed multichannel data acquisition system records the dolphin click sounds from all hydrophones. Signal processing algorithms have been developed for automatic detection and discrimination of echolocation clicks from other underwater sounds, localization of sound sources, and tracking individual animals. The device has previously been tested in vertical mode in a quasi-natural environment with a group of bottlenose dolphins that has confirmed its capability to precisely track several vocalizing animals. The depth of the Chilika lagoon in the dolphin habitat can be as shallow as 1.5 m. Thus, the array has to be deployed in horizontal mode, which enables it to provide very good lateral resolution in the broadside direction. This paper reports the first results of using this array in shallow water conditions. Movements of several Irrawaddy dolphins have been observed very clearly.