Detection of sharks with the Gemini imaging sonar

Limiting environmental impacts of marine industrial operations and mitigating hazardous encounters between humans and marine fauna have become increasingly important as anthropogenic activity expands. To this end, significant effort has been made to develop sonar imaging of fauna and to increase det...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Parsons, Miles, Parnum, Iain, Allen, K., McCauley, Robert, Erbe, Christine
Format: Journal Article
Published: Australian Acoustical Society 2014
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.acoustics.asn.au/journal/2014/Vol42No3-Parsons.pdf
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/21670
_version_ 1848750654850334720
author Parsons, Miles
Parnum, Iain
Allen, K.
McCauley, Robert
Erbe, Christine
author_facet Parsons, Miles
Parnum, Iain
Allen, K.
McCauley, Robert
Erbe, Christine
author_sort Parsons, Miles
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Limiting environmental impacts of marine industrial operations and mitigating hazardous encounters between humans and marine fauna have become increasingly important as anthropogenic activity expands. To this end, significant effort has been made to develop sonar imaging of fauna and to increase detection and identification ranges. A Tritech Gemini imaging sonar was used to observe sharks of 1.4 to 2.7 m length, at ranges from 1 to 50 m, in various water depths ≤15 m. Within 5 m, shark shape, length and swimming action were readily discernible. However, as range increased, knowledge of movement patterns was required to discriminate a 'shark-like' object, before the shark became purely an acoustic target at greater ranges, where visual confirmation of the target was necessary for identification. Once the seafloor is ensonified by the acoustic beam, seafloor backscatter can dominate the image and mask shark detection. The results presented concur with other active acoustic detection studies that, for a given frequency and noise level, maximum detection and identification ranges are reliant on system source level, beam pattern, bathymetry, and target size and acoustic reflectivity.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T07:40:16Z
format Journal Article
id curtin-20.500.11937-21670
institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T07:40:16Z
publishDate 2014
publisher Australian Acoustical Society
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling curtin-20.500.11937-216702017-01-30T12:26:39Z Detection of sharks with the Gemini imaging sonar Parsons, Miles Parnum, Iain Allen, K. McCauley, Robert Erbe, Christine Acoustic detection Animals Sonar Acoustics Acoustic waves Environmental impact Acoustic beams Acoustic targets Detection and identifications Industrial operations Anthropogenic activity Movement pattern Sonar imaging Limiting environmental impacts of marine industrial operations and mitigating hazardous encounters between humans and marine fauna have become increasingly important as anthropogenic activity expands. To this end, significant effort has been made to develop sonar imaging of fauna and to increase detection and identification ranges. A Tritech Gemini imaging sonar was used to observe sharks of 1.4 to 2.7 m length, at ranges from 1 to 50 m, in various water depths ≤15 m. Within 5 m, shark shape, length and swimming action were readily discernible. However, as range increased, knowledge of movement patterns was required to discriminate a 'shark-like' object, before the shark became purely an acoustic target at greater ranges, where visual confirmation of the target was necessary for identification. Once the seafloor is ensonified by the acoustic beam, seafloor backscatter can dominate the image and mask shark detection. The results presented concur with other active acoustic detection studies that, for a given frequency and noise level, maximum detection and identification ranges are reliant on system source level, beam pattern, bathymetry, and target size and acoustic reflectivity. 2014 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/21670 http://www.acoustics.asn.au/journal/2014/Vol42No3-Parsons.pdf Australian Acoustical Society restricted
spellingShingle Acoustic detection
Animals
Sonar
Acoustics
Acoustic waves
Environmental impact
Acoustic beams
Acoustic targets
Detection and identifications
Industrial operations
Anthropogenic activity
Movement pattern
Sonar imaging
Parsons, Miles
Parnum, Iain
Allen, K.
McCauley, Robert
Erbe, Christine
Detection of sharks with the Gemini imaging sonar
title Detection of sharks with the Gemini imaging sonar
title_full Detection of sharks with the Gemini imaging sonar
title_fullStr Detection of sharks with the Gemini imaging sonar
title_full_unstemmed Detection of sharks with the Gemini imaging sonar
title_short Detection of sharks with the Gemini imaging sonar
title_sort detection of sharks with the gemini imaging sonar
topic Acoustic detection
Animals
Sonar
Acoustics
Acoustic waves
Environmental impact
Acoustic beams
Acoustic targets
Detection and identifications
Industrial operations
Anthropogenic activity
Movement pattern
Sonar imaging
url http://www.acoustics.asn.au/journal/2014/Vol42No3-Parsons.pdf
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/21670