Who better to know if something fishy is going on? The federal Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is conducting research to determine whether various forms of sea life — ranging from bioluminescent plankton to goliath grouper — could serve as spies of sorts for the U.S. military, The Independent reported.
As part of the effort — which DARPA is calling Persistent Aquatic Living Sensors, or PALS — the sea creatures would monitor enemy drones, nuclear submarines and other underwater vehicles, according to the report. The agency has already doled out a whopping $45 million to five research teams, each examining how a specific marine organism responds to underwater vehicles, the outlet reported. “The PALS program was developed to leverage the great sensitivity that organisms have in the ocean to changes in their environment,” Lori Adornato, the manager of the initiative, told the outlet.
Ocean Life and Layers
Most submarine warfare today takes place in the shallowest parts of the ocean less than 200 m deep, where sun reaches, plankton and fish live, and submarines don't crush. There is a vast network of intercontinental cables and infrastructures below that at 6000 m, the bottom of most of the ocean basins. These have been protected at depth because of the difficulty of reaching them accidentally. Intentional interference using a dragged anchor, or other means, may change this. These cables become more vulnerable on the continental slope and shelf. Sensors would be useful here to detect attacks on this infrastructure.
Subsea Data Infrastructure - Particularly for islands, an Achilles Heel
The depth at which undersea cables are laid can vary depending on several factors, including the geography of the ocean floor, seabed conditions, and the presence of other infrastructure or obstacles. In general, undersea cables are laid at depths ranging from a few hundred meters to several thousand meters.
Shallow water cables may be buried just beneath the ocean floor to protect them from fishing activities, ship anchors, and natural elements. In deeper waters, cables may be laid directly on the seabed. The depth is carefully chosen to balance the need for protection with the practical challenges of installation.
For example, in relatively shallow continental shelves, cables might be buried at depths of around 1 to 3 meters. In deeper oceanic regions, the depth can reach several kilometers. The average depth for many undersea cables is often between 2,000 and 8,000 meters.
More than 95 percent of international data is transmitted by wires at the bottom of the ocean called submarine communications cables. In total, they are hundreds of thousands of miles long and can lie 8000 meters below the surface—as deep as Mount Everest is tall. The cables are installed by special boats called cable-layers.The cables must generally be run across flat surfaces of the ocean floor, and care is taken to avoid coral reefs, sunken ships, fish beds, and other ecological habitats and general obstructions.
The diameter of a shallow water cable is about the same as a soda can, while deep water cables are much thinner—about the size of a Magic Marker. The size difference is related to simple vulnerability—there’s not much going on 8000 feet below sea level; consequently, there’s less need for galvanized shielding wire. Cables located at shallow depths are buried beneath the ocean floor using high pressure water jets. Though per-mile prices for installation change depending on total length and destination, running a cable across the ocean invariably costs hundreds of millions of dollars.
Submarine cables are vulnerable, particularly in coastal waters. The Soviet Union found out how vulnerable undersea cable can be during the cold war when USN submarine tapped into one of their cables carrying unencrypted military data in operation Ivy Bells. It is possible to cut intentionally a major cable, as seen in Egypt in 2013. There, just north of Alexandria, men in wetsuits intentionally cut through the South-East-Asia-Middle-East-West-Europe 4 cable, which runs 12,500 miles and connects three continents. Internet speeds in Egypt plunged by 60 percent until the line could be repaired.
A sophisticated passive or bistatic sonar using biological noise might be a valuable way to monitor large areas of undersea cable runs for submarine intrusion. Biologics on the Abyssal plane are not known well enough to be considered.
Using the Locals as Guard Dogs
Living organisms could prove to be useful spies because they can sense sounds, as well as visual, magnetic and chemical cues, Adornato added. Underwater surveillance is usually conducted using sonar — but adversaries can detect those pings, according to the report. Also, the high cost of sonar sensors, the difficulty in installing them and their tendency to wear out or become coated with underwater organisms, are all downsides of that technology. “This gives you a lot more flexibility in how you would observe things in the ocean,” Adornato told the outlet. “By taking advantage of organisms, you can then look at persistence and wide-scale coverage as opposed to using one single sensor that does the whole job.”
The program's first phase sought to prove
that sea life would respond to the presence of a submarine in a
measurable way. That seemingly was confirmed, as several contracts have been let for phase 2. The second stage of the
program focuses on developing sensors that can identify that behavior
and relay a warning back to manned locations aboard a ship or onshore.
- Raytheon BBN is working with snapping shrimp for use in a passive bi-static sonar system;
- Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation is also working with snapping shrimp, using the snap as the input pulse for a 3D acoustic imaging system;
- Florida Atlantic University team uses Goliath Grouper as their biological sensor.
Naval Undersea Warfare Center – Newport Division is a government partner on the program, using an ecosystem approach to determine if an unmanned underwater vehicle has passed by a reef.
Why snapping shrimp
The snapping shrimp, also known as pistol shrimp, are small
crustaceans that are well-known for their ability to produce a loud
snapping or popping sound. This sound is created by the rapid closure of
their specialized claw, which creates a high-pressure cavitation
bubble. When this bubble collapses, it produces a sharp popping sound. This has been viewed by Navy sonar operators as part of the ambient noise, but the Raytheon and Northrop Grumman programs will use it as signal.
The sound spectrum level of snapping shrimp can vary, but it typically falls within the range of about 190 to 220 decibels (dB). This makes it one of the loudest sounds produced by marine animals. The actual level can depend on factors such as the species of snapping shrimp, the size of the individual shrimp, and environmental conditions.
As for diurnal (daily) variation, snapping shrimp are known to be more active during certain times of the day and night, although the specific patterns can vary between species. Some snapping shrimp are more active during the day, while others are more active at night. The behavior may also be influenced by factors such as tide, temperature, and light conditions.
The snapping shrimp sound is known to be a major biological noise source of ocean soundscapes in coastal shallow waters of low and mid-latitudes where sunlight reaches. Several studies have been conducted to understand the activity of snapping shrimp through comparison with surrounding environmental factors. Lee et al. report the analysis of the sound produced by snapping shrimp inhabiting an area where sunlight rarely reaches.
It's worth noting that the snapping shrimp's sound serves various purposes, including communication, territory defense, and stunning prey. The snapping shrimp's ability to produce such loud sounds underwater has also been studied for potential applications in sonar technology.
Booming Groupers
Goliath grouper, one of the largest grouper species reaching up to 800 pounds, produce low frequency loud “booms” using their swim bladder and surrounding muscles. An automated tag mounted on the Goliath grouper’s dorsal fin, recorded videos, sound and fish motion simultaneously, providing a window into the fish’s life. Classifying sounds produced by fish will help to understand how they respond to environmental changes and anthropogenic disturbances.
Goliath grouper are distributed in subtropical environments including both Atlantic and Pacific shorelines of North, Central and South America, as well as western Africa. Some of their offshore habitats include artificial reefs, which are being installed continuously to mitigate natural habitat loss and have created, along with remaining natural reefs, considerable “tracts” of structure in many coastal areas, particularly the Florida coastline. In most cases, these reefs are often constructed adjacent to inlets and shipping fairways to ease stakeholder (fishermen, diver) access.
To date, there have been no studies that have quantified boom dynamics in response to different stimuli, although such experiments are possible in a controlled environment and in situ. The researchers will therefore conduct a suite of experiments to isolate these behaviors from fish held in captivity at Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium to animals tracked within their natural habitat along Florida’s offshore reefs.
“Passive acoustics has been used for more than 60 years in fish biology and fisheries surveys and is being used routinely today to determine habitat use, delineate and monitor spawning areas, and study the behavior of fishes,” said Matthew J. Ajemian, Ph.D., co-principal investigator and an assistant research professor at FAU’s Harbor Branch. “In addition to defense-related applications, the project provides a tremendous opportunity to delve deeper into the behaviors of goliath grouper, a species that was previously decimated from overharvest but has experienced considerable recovery in Florida waters. We therefore look forward to how our work also can provide novel insights into the ecology of this large and somewhat mysterious species.”
FAU’s multidisciplinary PALS team, which includes Hanqi Zhuang, Ph.D., associate chair and professor, and Nurgun Erdol, Ph.D., chair and professor – both in the Department of Computer and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in FAU’s College of Engineering and Computer Science – provides expertise in bio-physical oceanography; fish ecology and behavior; passive acoustics; computer science and machine learning; field logistics and planning; and underwater communications.
“The Grouper Guard PALS system being developed by Drs. Chérubin and Ajemian and the team leverages a naturally dominant and territorial species,” said James M. Sullivan, Ph.D., executive director of FAU’s Harbor Branch. “Our researchers will specifically develop knowledge of goliath grouper response within controlled and simulated ecosystem experiments to develop robust acoustic training data sets for machine-learning, which will have the ability to translate these biological responses into tactically actionable information in the target environment.”
Reactions of Organisms
The responses of marine organisms to vehicle passage can vary depending on factors such as the size and type of the vessel, the speed at which it is traveling, and the specific characteristics of the marine environment. Here are some common responses observed in marine organisms:
-
Behavioral Changes:
- Avoidance: Many marine organisms exhibit avoidance behavior in response to approaching ships. They may move away from the source of disturbance to minimize potential harm.
- Altered Movement Patterns: Some species alter their normal movement patterns, such as migration routes or feeding areas, in response to ship traffic.
-
Physiological Stress:
- Noise-Induced Stress: The underwater noise generated by ships, especially large vessels, can cause stress to marine organisms. This is particularly true for species that rely on sound for communication, navigation, and prey detection.
- Vibration Sensitivity: Vibrations caused by ship engines and propellers can affect sensitive marine organisms, potentially leading to stress and disruption of normal physiological functions.
-
Habitat Impact:
- Sediment Resuspension: The movement of ships can stir up sediment on the seafloor, affecting benthic communities and potentially smothering organisms that rely on stable substrate conditions.
- Wake Effects: The turbulence created by ship wakes can impact nearshore habitats, affecting sediment transport, nutrient dynamics, and the distribution of organisms.
-
Collision Risk:
- Direct Impact: Large vessels pose a direct physical threat to marine life. Collisions with marine mammals, sea turtles, and other large organisms can result in injury or mortality.
-
Chemical Pollution:
- Ballast Water Discharge: Ballast water from ships may contain non-native species, pollutants, or pathogens, contributing to the spread of invasive species and introducing harmful substances into new environments.
-
Light Pollution:
- Disruption of Nocturnal Behavior: Artificial lights on ships can disrupt the natural behavior of nocturnal species, such as nesting sea turtles and some marine birds, which rely on darkness for activities like nesting and navigation.
-
Temperature Changes:
- Thermal Pollution: The discharge of heated cooling water from ships can lead to localized increases in water temperature, affecting the thermal preferences and metabolic rates of marine organisms.
Understanding the impacts of ship and submarine vessel passage on marine ecosystems are important for using their reactions as in situ sensors. Based on the Phase 2 approaches approved for the PALS program, none of these reactions of sea life were found in Phase 1. It also seems that marine mammals were left out of the PALS study, probably because they have already been pretty intensively studied and are in use by various Navies, primarily the US and Russian.
A number of studies have shown that anthropogenic noise can affect aspects of the anti-predator behaviour of reef fishes, potentially affecting fitness and survival. However, it has been suggested that effects could differ among noise sources. The Jimenez study suggests that various vehicular noise signatures can affect activity and escape response of individuals to a simulated predation threat, potentially compromising their anti-predator behaviour.
Of course, the biggest impact on marine life due to vehicular passage is a direct collision. Concern about the effects of maritime vessel collisions with marine
animals is increasing worldwide. To date, most scientific publications
on this topic have focused on the collisions between large vessels and
large whales. However, Schoeman's review found that at least 75 marine species
are affected, including smaller whales, dolphins, porpoises, dugongs,
manatees, whale sharks, sharks, seals, sea otters, sea turtles,
penguins, and fish. Collision incident statistics with smaller species are scarce,
likely as a result of reporting biases. There don't seem to be any available statistics for submarine collisions, likely since submarines don't seem to be equipped to detect them. The frequency of collision of large animals with ships compared to expected encounter rates indicates that they cannot detect ships, and determine the danger in time to move out of the way.
Downsides
But there are at least two potential downsides — DARPA will need detectors to pick up on the organisms’ behavior, and those could face the same issues as sonar sensors, experts say. Then, “you have to have some understanding of animal behavior, and that’s always a huge wild card,” a Kim Martini, a Seattle-based physical oceanographer who is not part of the initiative, told the outlet.
Perhaps the idea of “spy fish” wouldn’t come as a surprise to some. Last month, a group of Norwegian fishermen spotted a beluga whale they believed was on an international espionage mission from Russia. Fisherman Joar Hesten told a local television station that he was off the coast of a small Norwegian village when the whale charged toward them while wearing a curious apparatus on its head. The unusual harness — which appeared to be able to secure a camera or a weapon — was sporting a buckle that read “Equipment of St. Petersburg.”
DARPA’s PALS Program: Unveiling the Future of Underwater Surveillance with Living Naval Sensors – International Defense Security & Technology
Introduction
In the vast expanse of the world’s oceans, monitoring adversaries’ movements has always posed a significant challenge. Recognizing the need for innovative solutions, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) introduced the Persistent Aquatic Living Sensors (PALS) program in February 2018.
The Persistent Aquatic Living Sensors (PALS) program aims to leverage biology to augment the Department of Defense’s existing, hardware-based maritime monitoring capabilities. The program will tap into marine organisms’ innate abilities to sense and respond to perturbations in their environments and apply those abilities to the detection, characterization, and reporting of manned or unmanned underwater vehicles ranging from small autonomous vessels to large nuclear submarines. Because there are marine organisms are throughout the marine environment, self-replicating, and largely self-sustaining, sensing systems that use marine organisms as their foundation would be discreet, cost-effective, and provide persistent undersea surveillance with a minimal logistical footprint.
The envisioned PALS system would work in two stages. In the first stage, marine organisms would sense the presence of an underwater vehicle (or confounder) in their environment and respond with an output signal or other observable behavior. In the second stage, a man-made detector system would observe, record, and interpret the organisms’ response, and transmit analyzed results to remote end users as distilled alerts. The complete PALS system would also discriminate between target vehicles and other sources of stimuli, such as debris and other marine organisms, to limit the number of false positives. By teaming marine organisms with distributed detection systems, PALS aims to greatly extend the lifetime and range of undersea surveillance capabilities.
Dr. Tiffany Prest, current PALS program manager, joined DARPA in August 2022 as a program manager in
the Biological Technologies Office (BTO). She specializes in infectious
diseases, microbial ecology, computational modeling, cell and molecular
biology, evolutionary biology, virology, and bacteriology. Her research
interests include leveraging machine learning, microfluidics, and
physics writ-large for microbial systems.
Challenges to Underwater Surveillance
The Persistent Aquatic Living Sensors program emerged as a response to the limitations of existing surveillance technologies in underwater environments. The world’s vast oceans and seas offer seemingly endless spaces in which adversaries of the United States can maneuver undetected. The U.S. military deploys networks of manned and unmanned platforms and sensors to monitor adversary activity, but the scale of the task is daunting and hardware alone cannot meet every need in the dynamic marine environment.
Despite the progress made in underwater sensor technology, there are persistent limitations in achieving comprehensive spatial and temporal coverage, especially within contested underwater environments. Challenges such as sensitivity, specificity, high costs of sensors and platforms, restricted access to critical areas, and the need for consistent maintenance due to concerns like corrosion prevention, biofouling mitigation, and battery replacement, have hindered the development of sustained and widespread sensing capabilities.
The Vision of PALS
However, DARPA proposes a transformative approach by envisioning organisms themselves as integral sensing elements, potentially offering a groundbreaking solution to overcome these hurdles.
The realm of marine life presents a promising avenue for innovation. With their acute sensitivity to their environment driven by the imperative of survival, marine organisms hold the potential to revolutionize underwater sensing capabilities. Under the aegis of DARPA’s Biological Technologies Office, an ingenious program is underway to harness the innate sensing abilities of these organisms for strategic surveillance in critical water bodies like straits and littoral regions.
The program envisions harnessing the natural capabilities of marine organisms to create sensor systems that can effectively detect the movements of submerged vehicles. By studying the responses of these organisms to the presence of underwater vehicles, the program seeks to capture and interpret the resulting signals or behaviors. These insights can then be relayed through a network of hardware devices, providing invaluable real-time data for surveillance operations.
Exploring Marine Organisms
At the heart of the PALS program lies the exploration of marine organisms, both in their natural state and through modifications. Researchers are working to identify specific organisms that can serve as ideal hosts for sensor systems.
For instance, the remarkable Goliath groupers emit resonating barks that possess tactile as well as auditory dimensions. This distinctive trait becomes invaluable in scenarios where passing submarines might disturb a grouper, prompting it to emit its distinctive vocalization. This signal, even when the submarine’s presence is exceedingly subtle, could be intercepted by underwater listening posts, charting new horizons for unparalleled situational awareness.
By understanding the unique abilities of various marine life forms, scientists can determine which organisms are best suited to interact with and respond to the presence of underwater vehicles. This intersection of biology and technology opens up new possibilities for creating a symbiotic relationship between nature and innovation.
“The U.S. Navy’s current approach to detecting and monitoring underwater vehicles is hardware-centric and resource intensive. As a result, the capability is mostly used at the tactical level to protect high-value assets like aircraft carriers, and less so at the broader strategic level,” Adornato said. “If we can tap into the innate sensing capabilities of living organisms that are ubiquitous in the oceans, we can extend our ability to track adversary activity and do so discreetly, on a persistent basis, and with enough precision to characterize the size and type of adversary vehicles.” This new, bio-centric PALS technology will augment the Department of Defense’s existing, hardware-based maritime monitoring systems and greatly extend the range, sensitivity, and lifetime of the military’s undersea surveillance capabilities.
Unveiling Signals and Behaviors
The essence of the PALS program lies in deciphering the signals and behaviors exhibited by marine organisms in response to underwater vehicles. These signals could include changes in movement patterns, biofluorescence, or alterations in biochemical markers. The challenge is to understand the language of these organisms and translate it into actionable insights. This intricate process involves advanced data analysis and the development of sophisticated hardware capable of capturing and relaying these signals accurately.
Marine species have developed a wide variety of strategies to successfully compete in their natural habitats. The ability to utilize natural biological activity to provide distributed, persistent sensing could greatly expand ocean monitoring capabilities.
Inorganic sensors or sensor nodes contain certain common elements including sensors/actuators, a processor, memory, power and communications. Replacement of electromechanical devices in whole or in part with living sensors proves attractive since the organisms provide data through their natural behaviors. In some cases, signal processing and storage can be performed remotely thereby reducing the need for local infrastructure and maintenance.
Beyond sheer ubiquity, sensor systems built around living organisms would offer a number of advantages over hardware alone. Sea life adapts and responds to its environment, and it self-replicates and self-sustains. Evolution has given marine organisms the ability to sense stimuli across domains—tactile, electrical, acoustic, magnetic, chemical, and optical. Even extreme low light is not an obstacle to organisms that have evolved to hunt and evade in the dark.
PALS Technologies
Under the DARPA PALS (Persistent Aquatic Living Sensors) program, several innovative technologies are being developed that leverage biology and technology to create living sensors for underwater surveillance. These technologies aim to tap into the natural capabilities of marine organisms and combine them with advanced hardware and data analysis techniques to monitor underwater environments effectively. Here are some key technologies being developed under the DARPA PALS program:
- Organism Selection and Modification: Researchers are studying a variety of marine organisms to identify those that can effectively detect the presence of underwater vehicles. This involves understanding the organisms’ responses to changes in their surroundings caused by the movement of these vehicles. Additionally, there is an exploration of potential modifications to enhance the organisms’ sensitivity to specific signals associated with underwater vehicles.
- Signal Capture and Interpretation: The heart of the PALS program lies in capturing the signals or behaviors exhibited by marine organisms when they encounter underwater vehicles. This could involve changes in their movement patterns, bioluminescence, or alterations in their biochemical markers. Advanced sensor technologies are being developed to accurately capture these signals, which are then interpreted using data analysis techniques to provide meaningful insights.
- Sensor Integration: The program involves the integration of biological sensors with hardware devices. These devices could include underwater platforms, drones, or autonomous vehicles that are equipped to host and communicate with the living sensors. The challenge lies in creating a seamless interface between the living organisms and the technological components to ensure reliable data transmission.
- Data Transmission and Network: The data collected by the living sensors need to be relayed to central command centers or other monitoring platforms. A network of hardware devices and communication protocols is being developed to facilitate real-time data transmission from the underwater sensors to operational units, enabling timely decision-making.
- Interdisciplinary Collaboration: The development of technologies under the PALS program requires collaboration across multiple disciplines. Biologists, engineers, data scientists, and marine researchers are working together to design and refine the living sensors, ensuring that they are effective, ethical, and environmentally responsible.
- Environmental Considerations: As part of the program, there is a focus on understanding the potential impact of deploying living sensors on marine ecosystems. Researchers are considering ethical and ecological aspects to ensure that the technologies developed do not harm the natural environment.
- Hardware Resilience: The underwater environment poses unique challenges for hardware devices due to factors such as pressure, temperature, and corrosion. As a result, technologies are being developed to ensure the durability and resilience of the hardware components hosting the living sensors.
In essence, the technologies developed under the DARPA PALS program aim to create a symbiotic relationship between nature and innovation. By combining the unique sensing abilities of marine organisms with advanced sensor technologies and data analysis techniques, these technologies have the potential to revolutionize underwater surveillance, offering new insights into the movements and activities of underwater vehicles in real-time.
Technical Areas
The PALS program aims to leverage the biological maritime ecosystem across a wide array of marine environments, particularly in the shallow-coastal and littoral regions, to find M/UUV targets. It aims to transform existing biology, historically characterized as background noise, into highly content-rich biological signals that can be interpreted to track, classify, and report on the presence of M/UUVs.
The DARPA-funded PALS teams must develop or apply technologies to record stimulus responses from observed organisms, and develop combined hardware and software systems that interpret those responses, screen out false positives, and transmit analyzed results to remote end users. The teams’ solutions will incorporate technologies such as hydrophones, sonar, cameras, and magnetic, acoustic, and kinetic sensors.
Performers on the PALS program may consider organisms from bacteria through macro-organisms as well as multi-organism interactions, and must both:
Technical Area 1 :
Characterize the biological signal: engineer and/or reproducibly observe, understand, and model behavioral response of biological organisms to M/UUVs and confounder objects, including discriminations of like-sized objects at multiple scales
Technical Area 2:
Interpret the biological signal: detect observed unique biological signals and translate these into actionable alert information The PALS effort requires two stages of sensing. In the first, the biological organisms sense the intrusion of an M/UUV or confounder into their environment and respond with an output signal or observable behavior.
In the second stage, a man-made detector system captures and interprets the unique biological signal or behavior generated by the organism(s), making an analyzed result available in the form of distilled alerts. These components will be integrated by the performers into demonstrator systems able to be deployed in a maritime environment, and capable of end-to end system performance through delivery of alerts via commercial satellite link. Ultimately, PALS systems will offer long-endurance, widespread sensory coverage in multiple maritime environments, augmenting and enhancing current detection capabilities.
DARPA favors proposals that employ natural organisms, but proposers are able to suggest modifications. To the extent researchers do propose solutions that would tune organisms’ reporting mechanisms, the proposers will be responsible for developing appropriate environmental safeguards to support future deployment. However, at no point in the PALS program will DARPA test modified organisms outside of contained, biosecure facilities.
DARPA anticipates that PALS will be a four-year, fundamental research program requiring contributions in the areas of biology, chemistry, physics, machine learning, analytics, oceanography, mechanical and electrical engineering, and weak signals detection.
The Power of Collaboration
DARPA’s PALS program thrives on collaboration, bringing together experts from diverse fields to create a holistic approach to underwater surveillance. Biologists, engineers, data scientists, and marine researchers are pooling their expertise to ensure the success of the program. This interdisciplinary collaboration ensures that the development of sensor systems is not only effective but also environmentally responsible, safeguarding marine ecosystems in the process.
PALS progress
The PALS program has been through three phases so far:
- Phase 1 (2020-2021): This phase focused on developing the basic concepts and technologies for the PALS system. The team worked on developing new methods for attaching sensors to marine organisms, and for extracting data from those sensors. They also conducted experiments to test the feasibility of the PALS system in a variety of environments.
- Phase 2 (2021-2022): This phase focused on developing and testing a prototype PALS system. The team worked on improving the performance of the sensors and the data extraction algorithms. They also conducted field trials to test the prototype system in the ocean.
- Phase 3D (2022-2024): This
phase is focused on developing and testing a more advanced PALS system.
The team is working on improving the performance of the system in terms
of range, accuracy, and reliability. They are also working on
developing new methods for controlling and deploying the system.
The Phase 3D of the project is focused on developing and testing a prototype PALS system.
The $15.2 million modification to the contract will be used to support the development and testing of the PALS prototype system. The work will be performed by Applied Physical Sciences Corp. (APS) in Groton, Connecticut, and several other locations. The work is expected to be completed in October 2024.
The progress of the PALS program has been very promising. The team has made significant advances in developing new methods for detecting and tracking underwater vehicles using marine organisms. The prototype PALS system has been shown to be capable of detecting and tracking underwater vehicles in a variety of environments.
The next phase of the PALS program is critical to the success of the program. The team needs to continue to improve the performance of the system and make it more robust and reliable. They also need to develop new methods for controlling and deploying the system. If the team is successful, the PALS program could have a significant impact on undersea surveillance.
PALS Awards
Five research teams will study the behavior of marine organisms to develop sensors designed to detect and track manned underwater vehicles and drones in strategic waters under a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency program. The DARPA-funded PALS teams must develop or apply technologies to record stimulus responses from observed organisms, and develop combined hardware and software systems that interpret those responses, screen out false positives, and transmit analyzed results to remote end users.
As part of the PALS program, Northrop Grumman will develop biological sensing hardware that has increased sensitivity for certain sensor modalities, achieving greater range. Artificial intelligence will be applied to observe patterns in the marine environment to help classify targets. Northrop Grumman is partnered with Coda Octopus (Nasdaq: CODA), Duke University, University of Maryland, Baltimore County and the University of Memphis.
A Northrop Grumman-led team under principal investigator Robert Siegel will study snapping shrimps’ acoustics and bioluminescent organisms’ optical activity, while a group under principal investigator Alison Laferriere and led by Raytheon’s BBN Technologies subsidiary will analyze the potential of snapping shrimp for long-range detection and monitoring of underwater vehicles.
DARPA has selected Northrop Grumman for the Persistent Aquatic Living Sensors (PALS) programme under which the company will develop biological sensing hardware using underwater biological organisms to detect underwater threats. “The detection, classification and tracking of undersea objects is a critical military capability and we are excited to work with DARPA to develop this next generation approach,” Monch reported quoting Mike Meaney, Northrop Grumman Vice President, Advanced Missions in May 2019.
The company will develop the hardware with increased sensitivity for certain sensor modalities, and greater range. Artificial intelligence will be applied to observe patterns in the marine environment to help classify targets. Northrop Grumman is partnered with Coda Octopus, Duke University, University of Maryland, Baltimore County and the University of Memphis.
DARPA will also fund teams led by Naval Research Laboratory, Florida Atlantic University and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. The agency will offer financial aid to the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, Division Newport to help build a hydrophone array-based seafloor system designed to detect ambient sound in reef environments.
The teams’ solutions will incorporate technologies such as hydrophones, sonar, cameras, and magnetic, acoustic, and kinetic sensors.
- The team led by Northrop Grumman Corporation, under principal investigator Robert Siegel, will record and analyze acoustics from snapping shrimp and optical activity by bioluminescent organisms. Snapping shrimp snap their claws at super-fast speeds, creating a high-pressure cavitation bubble. The collapse of this bubble creates a loud snapping noise powerful enough to stun prey. Snapping shrimp also use the snapping noise to communicate with other shrimp, and large colonies of shrimp can create a cacaphony of snapping noises. During World War II, U.S. Navy submarines used the din of snapping shrimp colonies to avoid detection entering Japanese harbors.
- The team led by the Naval Research Laboratory, under principal investigator Lenny Tender, will integrate microbial organisms into a sensing platform to detect and characterize biological signals from natural microorganisms that respond to the magnetic signatures of underwater vehicles.
- The team led by Florida Atlantic University, under principal investigator Laurent Cherubin, will record and analyze vocalization cues from goliath grouper in tropical and subtropical environments.
- The team led by Raytheon BBN Technologies, under principal investigator Alison Laferriere, will use snapping shrimp as sources of opportunity for long-range detection, classification, and tracking of underwater vehicles. The system will use the loud, impulsive sounds produced by snapping shrimp as sources of opportunity in a multi-static sonar system—detecting reflections of those sounds off of the underwater vehicle. To enhance performance and versatility, the system will also listen to the underwater soundscape (i.e., the sounds produced by all animals in the environment), utilizing machine-learning algorithms to detect changes in these sounds caused by the intrusion of an underwater vehicle.”
- The team led by the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, under principal investigator David Secor, will tag black sea bass with sensors to track the depth and acceleration behaviors of schools of fish that are perturbed by underwater vehicles.
DARPA is also funding the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, Division Newport, under principal investigator Lauren Freeman, to develop a seafloor system that uses a hydrophone array and acoustic vector sensor to continuously monitor ambient biological sound in a reef environment for anomalies. The system will analyze changes in the acoustic signals radiated by the natural predator-avoidance response of coral reef ecosystem biota, which could offer an indirect mechanism to detect and classify underwater vehicles in near-real time.
Here are some of the key accomplishments of the earlier phases of the PALS program:
- Developed new methods for attaching sensors to marine organisms.
- Developed new methods for extracting data from sensors attached to marine organisms.
- Conducted experiments to test the feasibility of the PALS system in a variety of environments.
- Developed a prototype PALS system that is capable of detecting and tracking underwater vehicles in a variety of environments.
- Conducted field trials to test the prototype PALS system in the ocean.
Conclusion
The DARPA Persistent Aquatic Living Sensors program stands as a testament to human ingenuity and the limitless potential of combining biology and technology. As this initiative continues to unfold, it holds the promise of transforming how we monitor and understand underwater environments. By harnessing the inherent capabilities of marine organisms and translating them into actionable data, the PALS program could redefine the future of underwater surveillance. As we look ahead, we can anticipate a world where the secrets of the ocean are unveiled with the help of our aquatic counterparts, leading to enhanced security and a deeper appreciation for the natural world.
Russia Has a Long History of Using Animals as Submarines | The National Interest
Here's What You Need To Remember: Since the Second World War, both the United States and Russia have trained animals in underwater warfare. The United States has mostly stopped the practice; there is evidence to suggest that Russia has not.
On April 22, 2019 fishermen off the coast of northeastern Norway were approached by an unusually friendly beluga whale, as reported by Norwegian periodical NRK. The adorable pale white cetacean repeatedly rubbed against fishing boat hulls, attempting to dislodge a yellow harness on its back.
Two days later the four-meter-long Beluga was lured with cod fillets by a fisheries boat. A fishermen jumped into the water and removed the harness. You can see a recording of the peculiar incident here.
The harness had a clip apparently for mounting a camera, and the words “Equipment of St. Petersburg” written on a buckle. A similar yellow harness, this time mounting a camera, can be seen on a sea lion trained by the Russian Navy in a 2018 Russia Today article. Related screen captures can be viewed here.
As no Russian civilian research programs reported the loss of a whale, it is widely believed (though not officially confirmed) that the friendly beluga escaped from a Russian military program presumably training whales for surveillance of Scandinavian waters. Since 2014, Russian forces have increasingly targeted Norway and Sweden with mock attack runs and surveillance missions.
Beluga whales, which can weigh up to 1.75-tons, have strong echolocation capabilities and can dive up to 700 meters deep—deeper than all but a few military submarines. Both the Soviet Union and U.S. military have trained beluga whales for military purposes, as well as larger numbers of dolphins, sea lions, and seals.
Soviet Combat Dolphins
In the early 1960s the U.S. Navy began training marine mammals to retrieve underwater objects and detect infiltrating swimmers. Dolphin and whale echolocation amounted to an incredibly precise form of active sonar. Furthermore, due to their high levels of intelligence, marine mammals could be trained to retrieve objects or even drag swimmers to the surface using operant-conditioning methods.
The Navy deployed dolphins and sea lions to guard ships in Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam, and Bahrain, and to search and mark naval mines in the Persian Gulf and the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr. Today, the San Diego-based Marine Mammal program musters around seventy-five dolphins and thirty sea lions—half its Cold War peak.
In 1965, the Soviet Navy responded by opening its own marine life program on the Black Sea, based near Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula. A second center on the Arctic Ocean, the Murmansk Marine Biological Institute, was opened in 1984.
The Soviets feared sabotage by naval commandos, which also explains their development of a diverse family of underwater small arms. NATO benefited from the expertise of Italian Navy frogmen, who during World War II had infiltrated Allied harbors and used limpet mines to cripple two battleships, a cruiser and numerous other vessels.
A declassified 1976 CIA report reveals that the Soviet marine mammal program initially suffered severe deficits of scientific expertise and professional handlers. Dolphins died in droves from being fed un-thawed frozen fish, lack of prophylactic medical care, and inadequate environmental conditioning. Reportedly only two out forty-seven dolphins survived transportation to the facility. By 1974, the number “improved” to two survivors out of fifteen.
The report alleges that Soviet academics lacked familiarity with operant conditioning techniques, and instead used Pavlovian methods. These focused on creating positive “associations” while operant conditioning reinforced or punished actions, making the latter more effective for task-oriented training.
Eventually, the Soviet Navy recruited circus handlers, who employed combative “rough play” to build intimacy with the dolphins.
Object retrieval and reconnaissance was part of the Soviet program. On one occasion, Soviet dolphins located a prototype Medevka anti-submarine torpedo. The Soviet Union also tested a device designed to transmit the returns of organic dolphin sonar to help detect intruding submarines.
However, former dolphin instructors have repeatedly emphasized that “combat dolphins” were trained for lethal attacks.
Soviet scientist Gennady Matishov describes the tactics in an article by Nicholai Litovkin:
Their main role is to protect the waters of the fleet's principal base against underwater saboteurs. For instance, the bottlenose dolphins 'graze' at the entrance of the bay and, on detecting an intruder, immediately signal to an operator at a coastal surveillance point. After that, in response to the relevant command, they're capable of killing an enemy on their own with a special dolphin muzzle with a spike.
Matishov goes on to describe another novel defensive scheme developed by the Northern Fleet that could have come out of an Austin Powers flick.
“The naval command's idea was to deploy beluga whales at entrances to bays as sentries. If they detected an enemy, they were to signal their discovery to a handler, who was to release killer seals from their cages.
Supposedly, the Belugas proved “unsuitable” in arctic waters, so the navy focused on bearded seals instead. These proved scary during a counter-sabotage exercise:
Marine commandos were ordered to infiltrate a submarine base unnoticed and mine the vessels. But we did not warn the lads whom they would be up against. Literally a few minutes after the handlers opened the cage doors and the seals shot off into the bay, all the commandos returned to the surface and tried to make off for all they were worth.
U.S. Navy SEAL Brandon Webb described a different kill mechanism in his memoir: mounting hypodermic needles full of compressed gas over the dolphin’s nose. The dolphins were trained to headbutt and inject the needles, causing an embolism with fatal results.
Russia also reportedly trained kamikaze dolphins to deposit limpet mines onto enemy submarines. Former handler Col. Victor Baranets told BBC they were trained to distinguish between the sounds of the propellers of Soviet and American submarines.
However, operationalizing such a concept would be difficult, considering the Soviet World War II experience deploying explosive-laden dogs trained to dive under Nazi tanks, tripping a detonator rod on their backs. Because the dogs were more familiar with Soviet vehicles, they frequently ran towards Russian tanks or even their own handlers with catastrophic results.
It’s hard to believe the Soviet Navy would trust dolphins swimming close to port to decide whether to blow up a submarine carrying dozens of crew members. Perhaps the Soviets had a concept for offensive deployment: Litovkin claims that “bottlenose dolphins were trained for airdrops from helicopters” to perform ‘special forces’ missions.
Crimean Dolphin Controversies
With the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Crimea-based combat dolphin program passed to Ukraine. However, lacking funding the trained dolphins increasingly served as tourist attractions or therapy animals.
Finally, in 2001 the program’s manager Boris Zhurid sold the animals to Iran, claiming he lacked the finances to give them proper care. Twenty-six animals, including a beluga whale, four bottlenose dolphins, walruses and sea lions were transported by cargo plane to Iran.
It’s unclear whether Iran investigated a military use for military sea mammals. Most likely the Ukrainian dolphins were amongst those acquired for civilian use by the Kish Island dolphin park. Iran’s long coastline facing the narrow Persian Gulf make offensive marine-life operations hypothetically more practical. Tehran, incidentally, has accused Israel of using a camera-equipped dolphin for spying.
Meanwhile, in 2012 Ukraine reopened it its combat dolphin program with ten new dolphins trained to attack enemy intruders with “special knives or pistols fixed to their heads.” Just two years later, Kiev was about to close the program a second time when Russian forces seized the Crimean Peninsula—and refused requests to hand the dolphins back.
Some reports state the Ukrainian dolphins starved to death under Russian care. A Ukrainian spokesmen claimed the “patriotic” dolphins went on “hunger strike” due to their attachment to their Ukrainian handlers. Russian sources have variously claimed the dolphins died because of poor treatment by the Ukrainians, or that there were no dolphins remaining in the program to start with.
However, in 2016 the Russian government issued a tender for five dolphins, three male and two female, stipulating they must have “faultless teeth” and “impeccable motor skills.” These were eventually purchased from the Utrish Dolphinarium for the equivalent of $26,000.
Since then, Russian media has profiled the new dolphin training program, emphasizing its application for lethal attacks. While the U.S. Navy denies having trained killer dolphins or seals (likely not entirely truthfully), Moscow apparently sees the optics in a different light.
Sébastien Roblin holds a master’s degree in conflict resolution from Georgetown University and served as a university instructor for the Peace Corps in China. He has also worked in education, editing, and refugee resettlement in France and the United States. He currently writes on security and military history for War Is Boring. This article first appeared in 2019.
Image: Reuters.
What Is The Russian Navy Doing With All These Military Dolphins? Here's The Science
Dolphins might not be the first animal you think of when it comes to putting together a battle-hardened team of warriors, but the Russian military is reportedly recruiting bottlenose dolphins to defend the Sevastopol naval base in the Black Sea.
As per the UK Ministry of Defence, "trained marine mammals" are being kept in pens to deter divers.
Those pens have almost doubled in number in recent weeks, according to UK intelligence, suggesting that more dolphins are being recruited to the cause. While they wouldn't take on human divers in fin-to-hand combat, they could be used to flag up the presence of divers in the water to their handlers, and perhaps tag them so they're easier to locate.
Crucially, as pointed out by a Naval News report, no one can outswim a dolphin – not even the most expert underwater divers. That makes these animals very useful when it comes to noticing divers that are trying to get by undetected.
Bottlenose dolphins can reach speeds of around 18 miles (29 kilometers) per hour in the water, which is significantly higher than the 6 miles (10 kilometers) per hour that the best human swimmers are able to get up to.
Information supplied to Naval News indicates there might be as many as seven dolphins in service around the port at the moment. These dolphins can also be moved around the base by being transported on boats in specially designed cradles.
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The dolphins aren't the only line of defense either. An extensive network of anti-torpedo nets, depth charge systems, and rocket launchers are protecting Sevastopol. If the divers get past all that, they have the dolphins to contend with.
The Russians have controlled Sevastopol since the invasion of Crimea in 2014, and it's a clear target for Ukraine forces.
It's thought that the Russian navy has been deploying marine animals for years: so-called spy whales have been noticed, carrying Russian equipment that may or may not be used for monitoring purposes, and showing an unusual friendliness towards humans.
That friendliness or willingness to get close to boats might be to rid themselves of their harnesses, it's been suggested. However, countries aren't particularly keen to reveal details of their military strategies, or what they may have discovered about those of another nations.
It's not just the Russians either, because the US has also trained dolphins to look for undersea mines and mark their locations with buoys, for example. This has been going on since the 1960s, so we're talking about decades of research and deployment.
While the idea of military defense dolphins initially seems absurd, when you dig a little bit deeper it actually makes a lot of sense – so much so that two of the world's biggest superpowers have been using the tactic.
Marine Mammal Program - NIWC Pacific
The Reconnaissance and Interdiction Division at NIWC Pacific manages the Navy’s Marine Mammal Program which trains bottlenose dolphins and California sea lions to detect, locate, mark and recover objects in harbors, coastal areas, and at depth in the open sea.
Everyone is familiar with security patrol dogs, and how some service dogs use their keen sense of smell to detect explosives on land. Since 1959, the U.S. Navy has trained dolphins and sea lions as teammates for our Sailors and Marines to help guard against similar threats underwater. The Navy’s Marine Mammal Program has been homeported on Point Loma since the 1960’s.
In the early years of the program, more than a dozen different species of marine mammals, as well as sharks, rays, sea turtles, and marine birds were tested, and their sensory and physical capabilities explored. Today, the Navy relies on two species:
Bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus)
California sea lion (Zalophus californianus)
Both are known for their trainability and adaptability to a wide range of marine environments.
Dolphins naturally possess the most sophisticated sonar known to science. Mines and other potentially dangerous objects on the ocean floor that are difficult to detect with electronic sonar, especially in coastal shallows or cluttered harbors, are easily found by the dolphins. Both dolphins and sea lions have excellent low light vision and underwater directional hearing that allow them to detect and track undersea targets, even in dark or murky waters. They can also dive hundreds of feet below the surface, without risk of decompression sickness or “the bends” like human divers. Someday it may be possible to complete these missions with underwater drones, but for now technology is no match for the animals.
Recovering objects in harbors, coastal areas, and at depth in the open sea, sea lions locate and attach recovery lines to Navy equipment on the ocean floor. Dolphins are trained to search for and mark the location of undersea mines that could threaten the safety of those on board military or civilian ships. Both dolphins and sea lions also assist security personnel in detecting and apprehending unauthorized swimmers and divers that might attempt to harm the Navy’s people, vessels, or harbor facilities.
Over short distances, they are trained to either swim alongside a small boat or ride in the boat itself. For longer trips, animals can be transported by sea on naval vessels or by air in planes or helicopters.
Sea lions ride in specially designed kennels and are kept cool, wet, and comfortable. Dolphins are placed in fleece-lined stretchers that are suspended in fiberglass containers filled with enough water to comfortably support their weight. A veterinarian oversees the comfort and care of all the animals while each is constantly monitored by an experienced trainer.
Caring for and working with the Navy’s marine mammals has generated over 1200 scientific publications in the open scientific literature on their health, physiology, sensory systems, and behavior. Teaming with trained animals in the open sea has allowed Navy and visiting scientists to learn many things about marine mammals that we would not know otherwise.
Learn more about this scientific research from the following links:
- Scientific Contributions of the US Navy Marine Mammal Program 2022
- Scientific Contributions of the US Navy Marine Mammal Program 1959 – 2021
Several decades of classification of the program’s true missions led to media speculation and animal activist charges of dolphins used as offensive weapons—claims that could not be countered due to that classification. A popular movie in 1973 (“The Day of the Dolphin”) reinforced those ideas. Since declassification of the program in the early 1990s, the Navy has repeatedly and openly shared the story of its marine mammals and their missions in the media, but rumors are not easily forgotten, and there are those few who continue to actively promote them.
Walking tours of the facility, guided by the program’s student volunteers, for personnel with base access can be scheduled by emailing the Reconnaissance and Interdiction Division at navwar_info@navy.mil.
Please contact the NIWC Pacific Public Affairs Office at (619) 553-2717.
The Marine Mammals and Biology (MMB) program supports basic and applied research and technology development related to understanding the effects of sound on marine mammals, including physiological, behavioral, ecological and population-level effects.
Important Notice: Upon submitting any documents to MMB by email or Grants.gov, submitters will receive a confirmation email from the MMB program office. If a confirmation email is NOT received, contact the MMB point of contact to verify receipt.
Research Concentration Areas
Monitoring and Detection
The MMB monitoring and detection topic goal is to improve marine mammal monitoring capabilities over current methods by developing new and existing technology such as passive acoustics, IR and others. Recent research efforts on passive acoustics include the development and testing of new autonomous hardware platforms and signal processing algorithms for detection, classification and localization of marine mammals. Ultimately, our goal is to adapt those algorithms for use on a variety of fixed, towed, floating and profiling platforms. For example, over the last several years we have adapted the use of autonomous ocean gliders for marine mammal monitoring to create the desired capability of persistent, autonomous, passive acoustic monitoring of an area for marine mammal presence and abundance to provide timely, reliable, accurate and actionable information to support marine mammal mitigation and monitoring. A key goal of ONR-sponsored technology development is making the technology available to the broader research and Navy communities.
Integrated Ecosystem Research
The MMB integrated ecosystem research topic seeks to understand the patterns and causes of variability in the distribution and abundance of marine mammals over space and time. This topic often utilizes a multidisciplinary approach using tagging, visual surveys and passive acoustics to collect baseline measures of marine mammal behaviors and distributions relative to environmental features and prey fields. Recent research efforts have focused on: using animal tagging and passive acoustic monitoring to study behaviors and distributions of marine mammals relative to key environmental properties (biotic and abiotic); providing a context for interpreting behavioral responses to external stimuli (i.e., anthropogenic sound); providing basic knowledge needed for predictive models of species of concern; and mapping prey fields in relation to physical features and marine mammal distribution and behavior.
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Sensing and Tag Development: The MMB program has a long-term interest in both the invention and early stage development of new sensing technology with the goal of improving our understanding of the behavior, distribution and movements of marine mammals. Recent advancements in sensor technology and the on-going miniaturization of electronic components offer great opportunities to increase our capacity to monitor marine mammals. Additionally, attaching sensors or tags to cetaceans is particularly challenging and continues to be a focus area for MMB research efforts. ONR's MMB sensor and tag development topic seeks to facilitate research through the development of attachment mechanisms covering short, medium and long-term time durations (see workshop report 2009 below); development of broad sensor suites into tags; and improving accessibility of sensors, tags and attachments to the research and Navy communities.
ONR, in partnership with the International Whaling Commission and NOAA, hosted a workshop on cetacean tag developments, tag follow-up and tagging best practices on September 6-8, 2017, and a follow-up smaller workshop on June 19-20, 2018. Download: Report of the Joint U.S. Office of Naval Research, International Whaling Commission and U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Workshop on Cetacean Tag Development, Tag Follow-up and Tagging Best Practices
ONR hosted a workshop March 16-17, 2009, to discuss tag design and attachment issues with researchers, tag makers, veterinarians and the permitting agency. Download: Final Workshop Proceedings for the Cetacean Tag Design Workshop
Effects of Sound on Marine Life
The goal of the effects of sound on marine life topic is to better understand and characterize the behavioral, physiological (hearing and stress response) and potentially population-level consequences of sound exposure on marine life.
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Behavioral Response Studies (BRS): The MMB program’s goal is to safely study the behavioral responses of marine mammals to naval sources and other anthropogenic sounds. This will allow the community to better understand and characterize the causal chain of events leading from sound exposure to "biologically significant" behavioral reactions that might increase risks of population-level effects and/or the potential for stranding. Recent interdisciplinary research efforts have focused on defining/characterizing behavioral effects of sound exposure on tagged whales and to measure the exposure required to elicit responses that are safe, but indicate the potential for risk.
- Diving Physiology: The MMB program’s goal is a better understanding of the gas management and kinetics (stores and use) in marine mammals. These mechanisms that enable marine mammals to dive to deep depths for long durations while mitigating, if not avoiding, health threats. It has recently been suggested that diving mammals vary their physiological responses according to multiple stressors, which suggests several avenues for further study ranging from the effects of gas bubbles at molecular, cellular and organ function levels to comparative studies relating the presence or absence of gas bubbles to diving behavior. Also, technological advances in imaging and remote instrumentation would potentially benefit the topic area.
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Physiological Stress Response: Marine mammals are exposed to a variety of potentially stressful anthropogenic and natural environmental inputs in both wild and captive environments. Little is known about long-term effects of the stress response on individuals and populations in marine mammals. Prolonged exposure to stressors may result in immune system suppression, reproductive failure, accelerated aging and slowed growth. The MMB program’s goal is to develop an understanding of the natural variation of stress markers, better understand and characterize the relationships among hormones or other biomarkers in different matrices, define and compare the quantitative and temporal relationships of hormones across the different matrices, and evaluate and characterize the relationship between the physiological stress response in marine mammals and acoustic exposure and ‘biologically significant’ disturbance.
ONR hosted a workshop on Nov. 4-5, 2009 in Arlington, Va., with a report titled "Effects of Stress on Marine Mammals Exposed to Sound". The purpose of this workshop was to assemble a cross-section of researchers in the field of stress physiology and behavioral research to identify the state-of-the-art science in stress physiology as it may apply to marine mammals, identify research needs for marine mammal stress-related research, and evaluate available or developing technologies for measuring indicators of stress ultimately in free-ranging marine mammals.
- Hearing: The MMB program’s goal is to advance our understanding of sound reception and production mechanisms in marine mammals. Most of the research on hearing and the physiological effects of sound have been conducted on a few small odontocete species in captivity, but little is known about mysticete whales. Advancing our understanding of sound reception mechanisms in mysticetes will require a thorough exploration of the anatomy surrounding the ear and the whole head combined with modeling sound propagation through various tissues of whale heads and/or bodies.
- Population Consequences of Acoustic Disturbance (PCAD): A major hurdle with marine mammal conservation and management is to know if, and when, measurable short-term behavioral and/or physiological responses of marine mammals to disturbance result in ‘biologically significant’ or meaningful effects on individuals and/or their populations. The NRC report (2005) presented the Population Consequences of Acoustic Disturbance (PCAD) model, which is a heuristic model that defines several levels of potential effects of anthropogenic sound on marine mammals ranging from behavioral effects, to effects on life functions (e.g., feeding, breeding, migrating), to effects on vital rates (e.g., adult survival, reproduction), to population level effects. Recent and future efforts of the MMB program on this topic seek to develop statistical tools to allow mathematical models of the population consequences of acoustic disturbance to be fitted to data from marine mammal populations and lead collaborative development of transferable models of the effects of disturbance on marine mammals.
Models & Databases
The MMB program’s models and databases for environmental compliance topic seeks to provide tools to support environmental compliance efforts and decision-making related to how marine mammals are affected by anthropogenic sounds. Recent investments have been in developing and implementing the Animal Telemetry Network (ATN)
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Research Challenges and Opportunities
Pre-proposals due: 15 July 2023
Invitation full proposal: August/September 2023
Full proposals due: September/October 2023 (unless otherwise negotiated)
Proposal review/selection/notification: October 2023 - February 2024
Proposal funding date: November 2023 forward (depending on when we know our budget)
For More Information
- MMB had a program review April 23 -26, 2019. (Download the Program Review Abstract Book.)
- ONR sponsored a workshop on September 11-13, 2017 with a report titled “Current Status and Future Directions of Marine Mammal Diving Physiology: Considerations for the effect of military sonar on deep-diving cetaceans." The workshop’s purpose was to review and assess the current state of knowledge regarding the mechanisms that enable marine mammals to dive for extended periods to deep depths, and the potential physiological and biochemical risk factors that may cause formation of gas emboli and increase decompression sickness risk. The workshop specifically addressed the potential risk of beaked whales exposed to mid-frequency active sonar, and evaluated the potential for other physiological risks. The workshop included MMB principal investigators whose research was presented and reviewed, and a small number of selected participants who contributed their expertise on the state of research and provided recommendations for future research priorities.
- MMB had a program review on September 11, 2017. The topic covered was diving physiology (download the Program Review Abstract Book).
- MMB hosted a program review on March 20-23, 2017. Topics covered included monitoring and detection; integrated ecosystems, sensor and tag development, effects of sound/hearing, effects of sound/physiology, and models and databases (download the Program Review Abstract Book).
- ONR cosponsored a workshop to review the status and future research needs of the behavioral responses of marine mammals to naval sonar exposure. The workshop was held April 21-22, 2015 in Monterey, California (download the Report on the Current Status and Future of Behavioral Response Research).
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