Surveys of Arctic Marine Mammals in the
Chukchi Sea

Bio-Waves was asked to participate in vessel-based surveys of the Beaufort Sea in an effort to monitor marine mammal abundance and distribution, and also determine the potential effects of offshore seismic operations to these living resources. These surveys searched for marine mammals in regions where seismic operations for oil exploration were planned to occur later in the season. The species of primary concern was the bowhead whale, which feeds in these areas during the summer and fall. We custom designed a towed hydrophone array system for this goal and provided operation personnel during line-transect surveys conducted several times throughout the season. Despite the harsh environmental conditions encountered during this survey, the towed array system performed well through each of the project's segments.