IMIS - Marine Research Groups

Onslow Bay, off the coast of North Carolina, is currently the United States Navy's preferred site for an undersea warfare training range (USWTR). To determine the abundance and distribution of marine mammals and sea turtles within the USWTR, a monitoring program that includes aerial, vessel and passive acoustic survey techniques is currently being undertaken by Duke University, St. Andrews University and the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Surveys were flown in a Cessna 337, at 305 m altitude and 185 km/hr speed, with a pilot, co-pilot and two observers. The survey, consisting of ten 74 km long track-lines spaced 6.5 km apart, creating a 5 km boundary around the USWTR site, was flown 1 - 2 times a month.