August 5, 2021 — Each day, they appear as colorful blips on a black graph. The dispatches from a new buoy 23 miles off the coast of Ocean City, Maryland, could be nothing more than noise from passing ships or rough waves. But they could be whales.
It’s up to researchers at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science to tell the difference.
In groups of three, the small sound waves might be sei whales. A symphonic pattern of notes could be humpbacks — the “songbirds of the sea,” said Amber Fandel, a faculty research assistant with the center’s Chesapeake Biological Laboratory.
The buoy’s algorithm, developed by researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, often thinks it’s discovered passing baleens. But the discerning eye of a researcher knows best. The hydrophone aboard the bright yellow and blue buoy, with brethren up and down the East Coast, hasn’t tracked a whale since it was plopped in the water in late May, though some are expected as the fall draws closer, Fandel said.
Lately, the scientists’ work has taken on fresh urgency. The buoy is located in the 80,000-acre lease area carved out for the MarWin wind farm. Construction on the win farm is likely to start sometime in 2024, officials said, and could present dangers to marine mammals.