Marine Mammal Detection and Mitigation

The goal of this Phase I STTR proposal is to quantify the necessary hardware and processing requirements to enable a ship-based radar system to automatically detect and track whales on the ocean surface at distances of 5 kilometers or more for the purposeof collision avoidance. Long standoff detection and tracking is crucial to collision avoidance since large ships, such as commercial oil tankers, require significant time and distance to perform evasive maneuvers. In addition, the use of radar will permitnight time operations. To realize this goal, Aret¿, in conjunction with the University of Hawaii, will estimate the radar response of surfaced marine mammals including Doppler characteristics and overall Radar Cross Section. Both scattering off the mammalbody (hard target) and blowing events (expelled water fromwhale breathing) will be examined and will be based on known characteristics of mammal surface behavior as provided by the University of Hawaii. Based on these estimates, as well as known sea clutter characteristics, a radar and processingparameter space will be quantified for effective mammal detection and tracking. Finally, Arete will identify commercial radars which, with modification and/or the application of specialized processing techniques, can perform the collisionavoidance mission.The primary benefits of the proposed work, if ultimately successful, will be the preservation of endangered species and the avoidance of lawsuits for both the Naval and commercial shipping fleets.