FEASIBILITY OF USING ACOUSTIC DIFAR TECHNOLOGY TO LOCALIZE AND 

ESTIMATE HAWAI`IAN HUMPBACK WHALE POPULATION

Prepared by 

Whitlow W. L. Au, Ph.D 

Kimberly Andrews 

Marine Mammal Reasearch Program 

Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology 

46-007 Lilipuna Rd. 

Kaneohe, HI 96744 

For the 

Hawai`ian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary 

Office of National Marine Sanctuaries 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 

U.S. Department of Commerce 

and the 

Department of Land and Natural Resources 

State of Hawaii 

June 2001 

This report is used for documentation and timely communication of preliminary results. While the 

report has not undergone complete formal review and editing, it reflects sound professional work and 

may be referenced in scientific and technical literature. 
 2 

ABSTRACT 

The objective of this project was to determine if the DIFAR (directional frequency analyses and recording) sonobuoy technology could be applied to estimate the 

population size of humpback whales singing in chorus. In order to accomplish this objective, the project was divided into two phases. The first phase consisted of obtaining high 

quality recordings of singing humpback whales at close ranges to determine the characteristics of their songs. The second phase consisted of deploying two DIFAR sensors to 

obtain directional information from chorusing humpback whales. Eight different singers 

were recorded at ranges from 20 to 40 m. The songs consisted of burst of sounds called 

units, and units were organized into phrases. Some of the units had higher order harmonics that extended to 15 kHz. The amplitudes of the higher frequency harmonics of some 

units were within 18 to 24 dB of the fundamental or highest level harmonics up to a frequency of 13.5 kHz. These results indicate a broadband quality of humpback whale 

songs that has not been previously reported. The source levels were based on the rms 

value of the maximum level for each different phrases used by each whale. Source levels varied between 171 to 189 dB re 1 μPa. 

Two DIFAR sensors, each coupled to a microcontroller for remote recording of 

the acoustic information, were deployed in the waters outside of the Hawai`ian Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary office in Kihei, Maui. Unfortunately, the DIFAR 

system did not function properly. One unit flooded, destroying the electronics and microcontroller. The other unit had a hard disk crash. However, the analysis of the humpback whale songs provided strong evidence that the DIFAR would probably not have accurately localized humpback whales singing in chorus since the likelihood of finding 

short intervals of time during which only the sound from one whale was received while 

the other whales were silent would be extremely small. Therefore, with chorusing humpback whales, a DIFAR sensor would probably provide erroneous information. A better 

acoustic localization technique would be to use two beam-steerable arrays of hydrophones. 
 3 

I INTRODUCTION

One of the interesting and outstanding characteristics of male humpback whales 

(Megaptera novaeangliae) is the complex songs that they sing while wintering at lower 

latitudes. Humpback whales typically winter in the waters of the Hawai`ian islands to 

reproduce and give birth. Over the recent years the number of whales in Hawai`ian waters have steadily increased (Mobley et al., 1999) to the point that the background ambient noise environment of waters off west Maui, and probably the waters of other Hawaiian islands, is dominated by songs of humpback whales singing in chorus (Au and Green, 

2000; Au et al., 2000). During the 1998 humpback whale season, Au et al. (2000) used a 

portable acoustic data acqusition system (DAS) that was laid on the ocean bottom (40 ft 

depth) to record the background humpback whale chorusing sounds from January 

through April. The DAS was controlled by a microcontroller that turned the system on 

and acquired sound recordings for four minutes every half hour on the hour and half hour. 

Recordings were made in near-shore waters off Puamana Beach Park (lat: 20o

21’, long: 

156o39.5’) adjacent to the town of Lahaina, Maui. They found that during all hours of 

the day and night, there were always a number of humpback whales singing in chorus at 

the peak of the season. 

An important issue in understanding the population dynamics of the humpback 

whales wintering in Hawai`i is the number of whales in a given body of water at any 

given time. So the obvious question is whether the chorusing sounds can be used to estimate the population of male singers in a body of water. An acoustic technique that may 

provide a way to localize humpback whales and therefore, obtain information on population density. The U.S. Navy has been using DIFAR (directional frequency analyses and 

recording) sonobuoys for several decades. These sonobuoys can determine the azimuth 

of low frequency sounds below 2 kHz. This technique has only recently being used for 

scientific purposes (D’Spain, et al., 1991). A DIFAR system consists of two orthogonal 

pair of directional acoustic paritcle velocity sensors, a magnetic compass and an omnidirectional pressure sensor (hydrophone). The north-south (NS) and east-west (EW) components of particle motions are computed within the sensor package at the hydrophone 

resulting in three signals (the hydrophone and the NS and EW component signals) from 

which the magnetic azimuth of a sound source can be determined. By using two or more 
 4 

DIFAR sensor arranged along a line, one can resort to a triangulation process to determine the exact location of a sound source relative to the position of the DIFAR sensors. 

Despite the obvious potential of localizing singing humpback whales with a pair 

of DIFAR sensors, there are some technical issues that must be taken in consideration. 

There is no question that a DIFAR sensor can unambiguously determine the direction 

from which the sounds of a singing whale are coming from. However, it is not certain 

how well DIFAR sensors may work in an environment where several humpback whales 

are singing or chorusing together. Having sounds from several locations arrive at a DIFAR sensor at the same time will cause the sensor to sum the acoustic energy as coming 

from a single source and provide a false indication of the azimuth of this single source. 

Humpback whales sing in chorus, which mean that a number of whales are singing simultaneously. So an important question is whether or not there are breaks or silent periods 

within a humpback whale song that would allow the a DIFAR sensor to unambiguously 

detect sounds from another or even several other whales. 

Humpback whale songs consist of sequences of burst of sounds, with silent periods between each burst. A burst of song is typically referred to as a unit. Units produced 

repeatedly in a pattern are referred to as phrases, and phrases repeated in a particular pattern are referred to as theme. A complete song is a sequence of a number of theme. An 

important issue is whether or not a DIFAR sensor can detect many whales that are not 

singing in synchrony by taking advantage of the silent periods between units in each individual’s song. Therefore, in order to address this issue the temporal structure of humpback whale songs needs to be understood as much as possible. 

This project was divided into two parts, the first part involving close range (< 50 

m) recording of humpback whale singing in order to understand the temporal structure 

of songs and to obtain source level information. The second part involved the installation 

of two DIFAR sensor units on the bottom of the ocean and the collection of humpback 

whale chorusing sounds. 

II APPROACH 

Phase 1 

 Humpback whale songs were recorded with a Sony DAC recorder and a wideband 
 5 

hydrophone (flat to at least 150 kHz). Before going into the field, the gain of the DAT 

was calibrated as a function of its gain-knob for the two input modes. A 2 v peak-to-peak 

500 Hz pure tone calibration signal was also recorded at the beginning of the DAT tape. 

The calibration signal was used to obtain the appropriate scale factor after the data tape 

was digitized and saved on a PC. Therefore, the sound recording system was calibrated 

so that absolute values of sound pressure levels could be measured. 

Measurements of humpback whale songs were done in conjunction with Dr. 

James Darling of the West Coast Whale Research Foundation. Singing humpback 

whales were approached with a 17-foot Boston whaler and when the whale dove to assume its singing position, the tail fluke was photographed. When a singer submerges a 

visible “slick” is left on the ocean surface. Immediately after the whale dove, we approach to within 20 to 40 m of the whale. The boat engine was then turned off, the 

hydrophone was deployed overboard to a depth of 12 m and the DAT was turned on. A 

total of two days were spent recording the songs of 8 male humpback whales. 

The tape of the whale songs was digitized and analyzed using CoolEdit. The amplitude of the largest unit in a phrase was measured along with the time duration of each 

unit and the silent time between successive units. The spectrograms of the songs were 

also observed visually on a PC monitor. 

Phase 2 

 Two DIFAR sensors were deployed in the waters immediately in front of the 

Hawai`ian Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary office in Kihei, Maui. Each 

DIFAR sensor was suspended from a section of 7.25” OD PVC pipe by four bungee 

chords as shown in Figure 1a. The unit shown in Figure 1a was then mounted on a four 

legged structure constructed of PVC pipes that was driven into the bottom. The support 

structure and DIFAR unit standing on the bottom of the ocean at a depth of approximately 12 m is shown in Figure 1b. The original plan was to have a cable from each 

unit run back to the Sanctuary’s office for acquisition of the data. However, after an inspection of the field site in mid-January immediately after the project started, we found 

that the bottom depth did not change drastically with distance from shore so that the cable 

run would have had to be much too long (several km). Therefore, a decision to go to a 
 6 

 (a) (b) 

Figure 1. (a) DIFAR sensor supported by 4 bungee cords suspended from a section of 

7.25” PVC pipe. (b) The DIFAR sensor mounted on a PVC support structure which was 

in turn embedded into the ocean bottom. 

remote microprocessor controlled unit despite the short time frame before the end of the 

 The Persistor microcontroller with a multi-channel analog-to-digital converter 

was selected to perform the remote sensing task. Special power up and power down cirucits and anti-aliasing filters were designed, tested and fabricated. A schematic of the 

electronic circuit is included in Appendix A. A power-up and power-down sequence 

controlled by the microcontroller is necessary to conserve battery power. The electronic 

and battery packages are shown in Figure 2. The assembly was housed in a 4” PVC pipe 

having the proper removable end-cap with an O-ring seal. The housing is on the right 

side of Figure 1b laying on the bottom of the ocean. 

 Two DIFAR units were deployed in the third week of March, towards the tail end 

of the humpback whale season. Because of the rush to deploy the unit before too many 

whales departed for northern waters, we were not able to test the complete system as a 

whole but only as individual components. The DIFARS sensors were deployed at a 

depth of approximately 40 ft. 

III Results 

Phase 1 

It is important to consider the structure of a portion of a humpback whale song in 

order to understand the data obtained in this phase. Humpback whale songs consist of an 

orderly alphabetic pointing out specific sound burst. This system of classification can be 
 7 

Figure 3. Electronics for the DIFAR sensor 

Figure 4. An example of the structure of the song of whale 8 

very subjective, making it difficult to compare the results among different researchers. 

The units are organized in a pattern called phrases that are repeated in a sequence. Similar phrases usually contain the same number of units but can also have one or two additional units as can be seen in some of the phrases shown in Figure 4. A repeated pattern 

of phrases is called a theme. Several themes in a sequential pattern make up a song. 

D D E E

DDEE

DDEE

DDEEE

DDEEE

DDEE DDEEE DDEE

THEME

DA::BCAA::BC AA::BC

 0 260 TIME (S)
 8 

Humpback whales usually repeat the sequence of themes repeatedly from several minutes 

to several hours or more. 

 In our classification of the units in a song, the various labels or alphabets used and 

their associated sounds are given in Table 1. 

Table 1. Classification notations and the associated sounds 

 A moan (variable) 

 B low moan 

 C low rumble 

 D high downward frequency sweeping moan 

 E low upward frequency sweeping moan 

 F screech 

 H low frequency “rhoomp” sound 

 L lion’s growl 

 Q squeaky hinge 

 R high squeak 

 S low frequency followed by high frequency squeal 

 T high frequency whimper/yowl 

 U upward frequency sweeping whine 

 W water drop 

 Z zzzzip 

 

A total of seven specific phrases were found in the eight songs that were recorded. 

The waveform and spectrogram of each phrase is shown in Figures 5-11. The most unusual feature of the various phrase shown in Figures 5-11 is the high frequency components of some of the phrases. Some of the units have harmonics that extend beyond 15 

kHz (see Figures 5-10). Other units have broadband energy that extends out to 15 kHz 

(see Figure 9 and 11). These high frequency harmonics and broadband energy have not 

being previously reported despite the over 30 years of research on humpback whales and 

their songs. 

The frequency spectra of some units with high frequency harmonics extending 

beyond 10 kHz are shown in Figure 12. From these spectra, the relative energy in the 

higher order harmonics can be determined. The third harmonic in the spectrum for one of 

the S units in the phrase shown in figure 7 has the highest energy, and the energy at 13.5 

kHz is only down by about 18 dB from the maximum level. The higher harmonics of the 
 9 

Figure 5. Phrase DDEEE from Whale 6 

Figure 6. Phrase AAAAAABBC from Whale 2 

DDE EE

A A AA A A B B C
 10 

Figure 7. Phrase SSLHLH from Whale 3 

Figure 8. Phrase QRQRT from Whale 3

S S S L H LH

QQ Q RR T T
 11 

Figure 9. Phrase ZZZZZZU from Whale 4 

Figure 10. Phrase WWWWWWWBBC from Whale 5 

W WW W W WB B C W WW W W WB B C

Z Z Z Z Z ZZ Z Z Z Z Z Z U
 12 

Figure 11. Phrase FFF from Whale 8 

unit Q is the QRQRTT phrase shown in Figure 8 are only about 18 dB below the level of 

the fundamental frequency out to 8 kHz. Finally, the spectrum for unit Z show that the 

harmonic at about 2.5 kHz has the highest level. These types of high frequency harmonics and the levels of these harmonics have never been reported in the literature. 

The means and standard deviations of the duration of the different units composing the different phrases are shown in the top panel of Figure 12. Although the number 

of units involved in calculating the standard deviation was rather low, as low as 2, use of 

standard deviations provides a way to keep track of the variations in the duration of the 

different units. The mean duration for the various units varied from about 0.5 to 3 s, with 

most of the units having an average duration between 1 and 2 s. 

 The means and standard deviations of the silent periods for the various phrases 

are shown in the bottom panel of Figure 12. The mean silent period for the various 

phrase varied from about 0.8 to 2.9 s, with the most between 1 and 2 s. The duration of 

the units and the length of the silent periods between units are important factors in using 

F FF F
 13 

Figure 12 Spectra of selected units with very high frequency harmonics

RELATIVE AMPLITUDE (DB)

UNIT S FROM PHRASE SSLHLH

RELATIVE AMPLITUDE (DB)

UNIT Q FROM PHRASE QRQRTT

RELATIVE AMPLITUDE (DB)

FREQUENCY(HZ)

UNIT Z FROM PHRASE ZZ...U
 14 

 

 

Figure 13. Top panel: the mean and standard deviation of the duration of the units in the 

different phrases for each whale. Bottom panel: the mean and standard deviation of the 

silent intervals for the different phrases for each whale. 

any acoustic array to localize singing whales. If many whales are singing simultaneously 

as in a chorus, individual whales can only be localized if there are instances, however 

short, in which only the sound from one whale is detected. The probability of having an 

instant of time in which only one whale is producing a sound increases as the length of 

the silent periods become much greater than the duration of individual units. 

 Defining the source level of a humpback whale song is not a straightforward process because the sounds are emitted in burst, which could have different amplitudes. The 

0

1

2

3

4

5

UNIT DURATION (S)

WH1 WH2 WH3 WH4 WH5 WH6 WH7 WH8

0

1

2

3

4

5

SILENT INTERVAL DURATION (S)

WH1 WH2 WH3 WH4 WH5 WH6 WH7 WH8 DDEE DDEE DDEE AA::BBC AA::BBC AA::BBC AA::BBC AA::BBCSSLHLH SSLHLH QRQRTT ZZZU WW::BBC FFF DDEE DDEE DDEE AA::BBC AA::BBC AA::BBC SSLHLH SSLHLH AA::BBC QRQRTT ZZZU AA::BBC FFF WW::BBC
 15 

The procedure taken here is to choose the largest amplitude unit of each phrase. The 

source level of any specific unit is given by the equation 

 SL = |Sv | - gain + 20 log (vrms) + 20 log R (1) 

Where SL is the source level (sound pressure level referenced to 1 m from the source), Sv

is the sensitivity of the hydrophone, gain is in dB, vrms is the rms (root mean square voltage), and R is the range to the whale. When a singer being observed dove to position itself in the singing position, the Boston whaler was driven to within 20 to 40 m of the 

slick left by the whale on the surface of the water. A conservative estimate of 20 m was 

used to obtain the source levels for the different whales shown in Figure 14. 

The source levels of the eight whales given in Figure 14 could be an underestimate by as much as 6 dB. Nevertheless, the highest level was recorded for whale 2 at 

 

Figure 14. The average source level of the different phrases of the eight whales recorded. 

The source level was based on averaging the units with the highest amplitude for each 

phrase in the song. The specific phrases are shown above each bar in the graph. 

100

120

140

160

180

200

EST. SOURCE LEVEL (dB re 1 μPa)

WH1 WH2 WH3 WH4 WH5 WH6 WH7 WH8 DDEE DDEEDDEE AA::BBC AA::BBC AA::BBC AA::BBCZZ::U SSLHLH QRQRTT SSLHLH WW::BC AA::BBC FFF
 16 

189 dB re 1 μPa. The levels varied between 170 and 189 dB with most of the levels 

within ± 4 dB of 180 dB. These values are much higher than the 174 dB reported by 

Frankel (1994). These levels are sufficiently high that when the boat drifted close to the 

whale, the sounds could be heard unaided as the sound propagated through the bottom of 

the whaler. 

Tail-fluke photographs were taken for each of the whales that was acoustically 

recorded. Unfortunately, the camera was jolted on the first day so that only the tail fluke 

of the first whale came out. The camera seemed to work normally, but when the negative 

was developed, the pictures were not usable. Therefore, positive proof that eight different whales were recorded does not exist, although our visual observations indicate that 

this was the case. It is also unfortunate that specific whales could not be identified with 

the sounds. 

Phase 2 

 The use of the DIFAR sensor was a failure. One of the electronic housings 

leaked, destroying the microcontroller and the electronics. The hard disk of the second 

unit crashed, causing all data to be lost. We did not realize this disk failure since the intermediate flash memory card indicated that the unit worked. However, by the time we 

realized what had happened it was too late in the season to make another deployment. 

IV SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 

This project has produced some very interesting data on the characteristics of 

humpback whale songs that have not been previously reported, or not reported with the 

precision herein. The broadband nature of some of the songs wsd surprising. There were 

many units in which harmonics extended to 15,000 Hz. Generally humpback whales are 

considered to be relatively low frequency sound producers. The levels of the highfrequency harmonics do not drop off significantly in some of the units. We showed one 

example in which the harmonic at 13.5 kHz was only 18 dB below the level of the harmonic with the maximum level. In another example the harmonic at about 11 kHz had a 

level that was only 24 dB below the level of the fundamental frequency. 

 The typical duration of a unit of sound was found to be between about 1 and 2 s. 

This was coupled with a typical silent interval between units which was also between 
 17 

about 1 and 2 s. This type of temporal pattern would have made the use of a DIFAR sensor difficult to use to obtain azimuthal information for chorusing whales. The direction 

of two humpback whales singing simultaneously can probably be localized since there 

will be many instances of time in which one whale will be silent and the other whale emit 

a unit. However, as the number of simultaneously singing whales in a body of water increases, the probability of the song unit from a single whale being received while all 

other whales are silent decreases substantially. If the typical unit duration was much 

smaller than the typical silent interval, the probability of a unit from one whale occurring 

while other whales were temporarily silent could be sufficient to obtain azimuthal information. However, given the characteristics of the songs obtained in this project it seems 

that a DIFAR unit would not be effective or accurate during a significant part of the 

humpback whale wintering season in Hawai`i. As the humpback whale season proceed s 

towards its peak, the number of singing whales increases steadily until there is a cacophony of sounds. For chorusing sounds, a DIFAR unit would still detect sounds, however, 

the azimuth information may be inaccurate since it would essentially sum up the sounds 

and indicate the presence of a single source when as there may be multiple sources. 

 It seems that a better acoustic method to obtain azimuth information on the 

whales participating in a chorus would be to use an electronically steerable beam from an 

array of hydrophones or a mechanically rotatable array. Two arrays separated 

in distance could then be used to triangulate the singers. However, the low fundamental 

frequency of most humpback whale songs would require a relatively large array. For example, at 300 Hz, the wavelength of an acoustic signal in water will be about 5 m (16 ft). 

For an array to have a narrow beam, its size should be several wavelengths, meaning a 

relatively huge structure. If we limit ourselves to detecting harmonics above 3 kHz, then 

the array can be reduced in size by a factor of 10. 

 The source levels measured in this project represent a unique set of data. Source 

levels for humpback whales have not been widely reported. Only two references can be 

found in the literature concerning the measurement of source level (Winn et al., 1970; 

Frankel, 1994). Winn et al. (1970) visually estimated the distance from the singer, as was 

done in this study. However, we approached much closer to singers and our distance estimates were probably more accurate. Frankel (1994) used a hydrophone array to localize 
 18 

singers off the big island of Hawi`i. The range of the whales to the array were one km 

and greater. Therefore, the acoustic propagation conditions were much different that the 

simple spherical spreading propagation condition in our study. 

 Despite the excellent data obtain in Phase 1, there are several cautionary considerations that should be factored in when evaluating the project. First, the unfortunate circumstance concerning the malfunction of the photo-id camera made it impossible to identify the specific whales that produced the sounds recorded. Second, the estimation of the 

whale’s range from the boat was not as precise as one would prefer. The only practical 

method to obtain good range precision is to use a high frequency echo sounder to measure the singer’s range as a function of time as the boat drifts. 

 It was truly unfortunate that the remote DIFAR units did not function properly. A 

series of events made this portion of the project highly problematic. The late arrival of 

funds made it impossible to start the project before the middle of January. The improper 

analysis of bottom contour plots of the water of Kihei made it necessary to switch to a 

remote recording technique. Because of time limitations, the remote system was not 

tested to the degree desired. One system apparently did function properly with the exception of a disk crash, an event that could not be predicted ahead of time. However, an earlier start would have allowed us time for another deployment after realizing the situation. 

 Although all the objectives of this study were not totally met, the results obtained 

on humpback whale songs will make a significant contribution to our understanding of 

humpback whales and their songs. 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 

Funding for the preparation of this report was provided in part by the National 

Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the U.S. Department of Commerce 

through contract number 50ABNC-8-00063 between the Hawaiian Islands Humpback 

Whale National Marine Sanctuary and the State of Hawaii, Department of Land and 

Natural Resources." – The authors would like to express their appreciation to Dr. James 

Darling of the West Coast Whale Research Foundation for his assistance in locating and 

approaching the various singers. The recording sessions were conducted under his research permit. 
 19 

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Au, W.W.L. Mobley J.R., Burgess, W.C. , Lammers, M.O. and Nachtigall, P.E. (2000) 

“Seasonal and Diurnal Trends of Chorusing Humpback Whales Wintering in Waters off 

W. Maui,” Mar. Mamml. Sci., Vol 16, 530-544. 

Au, W.W.L. and Green, M. (2000). “Acoustic Interaction of Humpback Whales and 

Whale Watching Boats.” Mar. Envir. Res. Vol 49, 469-481. 

D’Spain, G. L., Hodgkiss, W. S., and Edmonds, G. L. (1991). “Energetics of the deep 

ocean’s infrasonic sound field,” J. Acoustic.Soc. Am. 89, 1134- 1158. 

Frankel, A. S. (1994). “Acousitc and visual tracking reveals distribution, song variability 

and social roles of humpback whales in Hawaiian waters,” Ph.D. dissertation, Dept. of 

Oceanography, Univ. of Hawai`I, Manoa, HI. 

Mobley, J. R., Grotefendt, R.A., Forestell P. H. and Frankel, A. S. (1999). Results of 

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to the Acoustic Thermometry of Ocean Climate Marine Mammal Research Program 

(ATOC MMRP), 39 pp. [Available from Social Sciences, University of Hawaii-West 

O`ahu, Ala Ike 96-043 Pearl City, HI 96782]. 

Winn, H. E., Perkins, P. J., and Poulter, T. C. (1970). “Sounds of the humpback whale,” 

in Proc. 7th Ann. Conf. Biological Sonar Diving Mamm., pp. 39-52.