Article Summary:

Researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution have used two autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) equipped with digital acoustic monitoring equipment to detect 9 North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) in the Gulf of Maine, National Geographic reports. The AUVs process and classify the whales’ acoustic signatures, then surface every two hours and transmit the positions of the whale calls to shore-based computers. In future, this information could then be used to reroute shipping away for the whales.