The goal of the Phase I project is to develop a COTS system into a modular unit for detection, tracking and classification of large marine organisms such as manatees and turtles. The Kongsberg Mesotech M3 Sonar is a 500 kHz multibeam that can resolve objects as far as 150 m. This compact system has been tested to detect Florida manatees by Dr. Kevin Boswell and will be used by well qualified marine mammal and fisheries experts Drs. Doug Nowacek and Kevin Boswell as a detection platform for classification of species of concern in support of Corps channel maintenance. The advantage of the M3 is that a full 120 degree view is standard with one transducer and being low cost the swath width can be expanded to 360 degrees with the addition of two transducers. This project will build upon the system?s unique phase information for horizontal as well as vertical target position to aid in detection, tracking and classification. A real time program will be developed to utilize the system?s Ethernet telemetry that contains beam information in order to design detection, tracking and classification. Project manager Dr. John Hedgepeth will coordinate classification efforts with the aid of the system developer.
Keywords: Marine Mammal Detection, Multibeam Sonar, Underwater Target Tracking, Manatee, Sea Turtle, Active Acoustics, Hydroacoustics
