Orcinus orca, Orca

Orcas (Orcinus orca) are animals with an extraordinarily complex culture. This culture favours a diversity of behaviours among specimens of the same species that provides them with certain adaptive advantages, promotes speciation (the process by which more species are generated from an initial species) and can influence both the conservation of other species of marine mammals and the management of coastal ecosystems where they are present.

Since 2006 LPF has been investigating orca language and vocal communication, that is why its facilities are equipped with hydrophones, video cameras and state-of-the-art underwater loudspeakers, making Orca Ocean’s infrastructure a perfect laboratory for collecting and studying orca sounds.
The research project aims to delve into the central element of O. orca culture, their communication system. The goal is to contribute to the creation of a theoretical body that will enable a more efficient management of wild populations and help to improve the species’ conservation status. Its main objectives are to create new tools for bioacoustic analysis and to delve into the processes that influence the variation of orca dialect and the elements that encode meaning in discrete calls.

Bioacoustic research is based on the recording, identification and analysis of sounds emitted by animals. In that sense, detailed analyses of signals (necessary when intending to study communication systems in depth) require processing thousands of vocalizations, which are nearly impossible to compare without adequate automation. This automation is not a simple process and, although there are some proposals in this regard, none has been completely satisfactory. In this bioacoustics project, computer systems have been developed that have allowed progress in this field.

Through this project it is possible to advance in the development of technology that enables underwater acoustic measurement, and of automated calibration algorithms.