Echolocation for restoration: Odontocete monitoring in the Gulf of Mexico

In the late 1990s, George E. Ioup began studying echolocation clicks as a means of understanding marine mammals in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM). He also led one of the few research programs focused on pelagic species in this chronically impacted region in the years preceding the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Today, passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) is one of the primary tools used to study the nearly 20 pelagic odontocete species found in the GOM, including sperm whales, beaked whales, dolphins, and Kogia species. Since 2010, PAM devices have been deployed nearly continuously in the region, driven by an urgent need to understand the long-term effects of both acute and chronic anthropogenic impacts on GOM marine mammal populations. Recent advances fueled by robust, reliable PAM technologies include the development of multi-year timeseries documenting changes in species densities across continental shelf and slope habitats, differentiating GOM odontocete species based on echolocation click properties, and levera...