cowtreemoon← 🇲🇸 Montserrat
Ocean LifeNGO

Listening for Sperm Whales Off a Volcano Island

by Island Solutions · HQ 🇲🇸 Montserrat

#marine-protection#education#youth
0percentShare of Montserrat's surrounding waters covered by the hydrophone networkas of 2025-04-23 · may be outdated
0kmLength of coastline covered by the hydrophone networkas of 2025-04-23 · may be outdated
0TBCompressed acoustic data collected across two deploymentsas of 2025-04-23 · may be outdated

With Darwin Plus funding, Island Solutions built a hydrophone network that monitors over 75% of the waters around Montserrat, about 44 km in linear distance, and collected 4.98 TB of compressed acoustic data over two deployments; all of it has been shared with NOAA to support regional analysis. The follow-on Montserrat Cetaceans 2.0 project (October 2025 to September 2026, GBP 49,380, with the Government of Montserrat as partner) reconfigures the array to listen at 100 to 500 metres for deep-diving species, especially sperm whales, with AI-assisted analysis in collaboration with NOAA's Passive Acoustic Research Group. It also works with artists and young people on six permanent marine mega-fauna sculptures for public display around the island.

visit website ↗Montserrat Cetaceans 2.0 (Darwin Plus DPL00144) ↗Identifying cetacean species in Montserrat by establishing a hydrophone network (DPL00091) ↗Montserrat Cetaceans 2.0 announcement ↗

Ways to help

solutions@islandsolutions.org
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