Progress Report on the Application of Passive Acoustic Monitoring to Density Estimation of Cuvier’s Beaked Whales

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Progress is reported on efforts to estimate the density of Cuvier’s beaked whales (Ziphius cavirostris), using passive acoustic monitoring data collected with Navy support at sites in the Southern California Bight. Two methods for estimating weekly densities of beaked whales are presented, one based on the number of echolocation clicks detected (click counting) and the other based on the presence of clicks during 1-min time bins indicating the presence of animal groups (group counting). The click-based method requires an estimate of mean click production rate, while the group-based method requires the proportion of 1-min bins a group is vocally active. These parameters are obtained from tagging and tracking data collected for Cuvier’s beaked whales in Southern California and other locations.