Thanks to an underwater glider that had never before traveled so far from the coast, researchers from the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria have obtained data on underwater mountain sounds 100 nautical miles south of El Hierro, as well as on the presence of cetaceans.
This research, the team of researchers detailed this Tuesday in a statement, represents a triple milestone, not only for having managed to travel so far with a glider, but also for recording data on currents, temperature, salinity, chlorophyll concentration, and dissolved oxygen, but also for measuring sounds in one of the quietest areas of the archipelago and the presence of cetaceans.
The group, integrated into the Robotics and Computational Oceanography Division (ROC) of the University Institute of Intelligent Systems and Numerical Applications in Engineering (IU SIANI) of the ULPGC, has been on a mission since last June 6 until this weekend, and has reached for the first time the underwater mountains Henry, Bimbache, and Las Bisabuelas, about 185 kilometers from La Restinga, and at about 1,000 meters deep.
To ensure the glider traveled so far, they explained, "it has been fundamental to use the currents and optimize the use of its battery to 'fly' efficiently and collect the maximum amount of data."
The project leaders are Jorge Cabrera and Antonio Domínguez, who have indicated that the objectives of this work are to characterize the underwater acoustic landscape in this relatively quiet area, study the presence of cetaceans in different areas, and evaluate the potential of this underwater glider as an efficient platform for long-term acoustic monitoring.
During these 20 days, the glider has visited several of the underwater mountains located south of El Hierro, oceanic areas that usually concentrate abundant biodiversity, although they are still largely unknown, and this mission could provide new data that allows scientists to better understand these environments.
"Throughout the campaign, the passive acoustics system on board the glider has operated continuously, recording at a sampling frequency of 512 kHz. For this, a silent and energetically efficient flight pattern has been designed, a key element to sustain a mission of approximately three weeks in which nearly 560 kilometers have been covered," Carballo and Domínguez detailed.
Thanks to this, they have obtained 2.4 terabytes of acoustic data that will now be analyzed, for which they value "very positively" the development of the campaign.
This mission, of an exploratory nature, is part of the campaigns that the Robotics and Computational Oceanography division of the SIANI University Institute of the ULPGC has been carrying out for three years within the MacPAM project, integrated into CanBIO, a public-private research initiative on climate change promoted by the Government of Canarias and the Loro Parque Fundación.