Acoustic detection of manatee vocalizations

The West Indian manatee (trichechus manatus latirostris) has become endangered partly because of a growing number of collisions with boats. A system to warn boaters of the presence of manatees, that can signal to boaters that manatees are present in the immediate vicinity, could potentially reduce these boat collisions. In order to identify the presence of manatees, acoustic methods are employed. Within this paper, three different detection algorithms are used to detect the calls of the West Indian manatee. The detection systems are tested in the laboratory using simulated manatee vocalizations from an audio compact disk. The detection method that provides the best overall performance is able to correctly identify similar to96% of the manatee vocalizations. However, the system also results in a false alarm rate of similar to16%. The results of this work may ultimately lead to the development of a manatee warning system that can warn boaters of the presence of manatees. (C) 2003 Acoustical Society of America.