For vocal animals with distinctive calls, passive acoustic monitoring can be used to infer presence, distribution, and abundance provided that the calls and calling behaviour are known. Key to enabling quantitative acoustic surveys are calibrated recordings of identified species from which the source parameters of the sounds can be estimated. Obtaining such information from free-ranging aquatic animals such as toothed whales requires multi-element hydrophone arrays, the use of which is often constrained by cost, the logistical challenge of long cables, and the necessity for attachment to a boat or mooring in order to digitise and store multiple channels of high-sample rate audio data. Such challenges are compounded when collecting recordings or tracking the diving behaviour of deep-diving animals for which the array must be deployed at depth. Here we report the development of an autonomous drifting deep-water vertical passive acoustic array that uses readily available off-the-shelf components. This lightweight portable array can be deployed quickly and repeatedly to depths of up to 1000 m from a small boat. The array comprises seven ST-300 HF SoundTrap autonomous recorders equally spaced on an 84 m electrical-mechanical cable. The single-channel digital sound recordings were configured to allow for synchronisation in post-processing using an RS-485 timing signal logged by all channels every second. We outline how to assemble the array, and provide software for time-synchronising the acoustic recorders. To demonstrate the utility of the array, we present an example of short-finned pilot whale clicks localised on the deep-water (700 m) array configuration. This array method has broad applicability for the cost-effective study of source parameters, acoustic ecology, and diving behaviour of deep diving toothed whales, which are valuable not only to understand the sensory ecology of deep-diving cetaceans, but also to improve passive acoustic monitoring for conservation and management.

对于具有独特声音的声带动物，只要已知声音和声音的行为，可以使用无源声音监视来推断其存在，分布和丰度。启用定量声学调查的关键是已识别物种的校准记录，从中可以估计声音的源参数。要从自由放养的水生动物（如齿鲸）中获取此类信息，需要多元素水听器阵列，其使用通常受成本，长电缆的后勤挑战以及必须附在船上或系泊以限制使用的限制。数字化并存储多个高采样率音频数据通道。当收集记录或跟踪必须在深处部署该阵列的深潜动物的潜水行为时，此类挑战更加复杂。在这里，我们报告了使用现有现货组件的自主漂移深水垂直无源声学阵列的开发。这种轻巧的便携式阵列可以从小船快速，重复地部署到最深1000 m的深度。该阵列包括7条ST-300 HF SoundTrap自主记录器，这些记录器在84 m的机电电缆上等距分布。单通道数字录音被配置为允许使用每秒所有通道记录的RS-485定时信号在后处理中进行同步。我们概述了如何组装阵列，并提供了用于对录音机进行时间同步的软件。为了演示该阵列的实用性，我们提供了一个示例的示例，该示例位于深水（700 m）阵列配置上的短翅鲸鲸点击。