Understanding the behavior of whales through their sounds is the mission of Sonia Espanol-JimenezSpanish marine biologist, PhD in Marine Biology from the Austral University of Chile, and executive director of Meri Foundationthat protects the region’s whales with artificial intelligence (AI)).
Español-Jiménez promoted a project called The Blue Boat Initiativein which it developed a buoy with “smart ears” that “listen” to all the sounds of the ocean, monitor climate change and that may be key to preventing ships passing through the Corcovado Gulf from colliding with whales.
The device contains various oceanographic sensors that allow monitoring the health of the oceans in relation to climate changewhich could help produce public policies.
Experts use sea sounds stored in the software Listening to the deep ocean (LIDO)which make it possible to detect the presence of cetaceans, identify what type of whale it is and warn nearby boats of its presence in real time so that they can reduce noise emissions and avoid a crash.
“Little is known about whales in Chile”
In an interview with ThirdSonia Español-Jiménez spoke about her presentation at Congreso Futuro and assured that little is known about the whales that live in Chilean waters.
“In Chile, at a scientific level, relatively little is known about the number of whales there are. For example, what are the main feeding or even breeding areas of some of these species; what are their migratory routes“, revealed.
Español-Jimenez added: “There is no solid science at the cetacean level. Even though Chile is one of the places in the world where there is more whale biodiversity. It is very rare and at the same time an opportunity for all those people who like cetaceans or whales, because it is the place to study them.”.
Regarding the importance of artificial intelligence in this initiative, he explained: “AI plays an important role in how to capture these sounds (from the whales) and how to improve this research on whales.. I in particular used hours and hours of listening to audios and manually identifying where there was a whale”.
“Artificial intelligence gives you a quantum leap to that analysis, because it also learns what kind of whale it is and what are the characteristic sounds of each one. It also allows you to evolve over time, that is, to learn from all the sounds that occur in the ocean. You will be able to identify them all and how to catalog them”.
