Overview
The article discusses the use of snapping shrimp noise in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) to improve underwater acoustic systems. Snapping shrimp produce loud snaps that can disrupt underwater communication. The characteristics of snapping shrimp, analyzes the soundscape of the IOR, and examines the spatial and temporal behaviour of snapping shrimp noise. The potential benefits and challenges associated with utilizing snapping shrimp noise for different applications, including signal detection, acoustic imaging, and environmental monitoring. It also highlights the challenges and opportunities in utilizing snapping shrimp noise for signal detection, acoustic imaging, and environmental monitoring. The article emphasizes the need for further research and comprehensive studies to harness the potential of snapping shrimp noise in the IOR.
Key highlights
- Snapping shrimp colonies are found in warm littoral waters in tropical and sub-tropical zones worldwide, including the Indian Ocean Region (IOR).
- Snapping shrimp produce loud snaps, with peak-to-peak source levels reaching up to 180 dB re 1μPa at 1m, which is louder than a jet engine.
- The snaps are broadband signals dominant in the frequency range of 2 kHz to 250 kHz, potentially extending beyond 250 kHz.
- The noise generated by snapping shrimp colonies interferes with underwater acoustic communication for humans and marine species, impacting underwater systems.
- Identifying actual shrimp hotspots in the IOR based on habitat features is crucial for creating ambient noise maps and optimizing acoustic systems.
- Snapping shrimp actively colonize corals, rocks, and sponges, primarily to hide from prey and perform surprise attacks.
- Ambient noise mapping involves considering other noise sources like water motion, wind noise, anthropogenic noise, and marine bioacoustics.
Key Challenges
- Gathering sufficient and reliable data on snapping shrimp noise requires extensive fieldwork, deploying hydrophones, and processing large volumes of acoustic recordings.
- Developing accurate models that capture the complex behaviour and characteristics of snapping shrimp noise is a challenge.
- External factors such as weather conditions, sea state, and anthropogenic noise can influence the ambient noise levels and make it challenging to distinguish shrimp noise from other sources.
- We still have a long way to go for conducting experiments to verify all possible hotspots. After we locate possible hotspots, we’ll need indigenous effort to study our marine bioacoustics environment. Better understanding of the sound quality will be obtained through such efforts.
- In all the studies, variation (based on location, country) is observed in noise, habitat, spatial temporal distribution and the soundscape. We can use them as motivation, but not as a fixed standard in studying shrimp noise. This again calls for further research into the high frequency soundscape of shallow waters that contain shrimp colonies.
- Lot of research is being done in nearby waters in the Indian Ocean itself; we need our own indigenous capacity to stand in par with them.
- Identifying the accurate origin of a single snap is a difficult process, there are procedures to aid this but developing better techniques would ease our understanding of clustering of colonies and will also help in studying seabed features better.
Major Opportunities
- Characterizing the noise using models like αSGN(m) allows for better signal detection and analysis. This can lead to advancements in underwater acoustic research and enhance our understanding of marine environments.
- Snapping shrimp’s high-frequency noise can be used for acoustic-daylight imaging, enabling the creation of moving color pictures without the need for sonar. This technique can be valuable for underwater surveillance, mapping submerged objects, and monitoring marine ecosystems.
- Passive sensing techniques utilizing snapping shrimp noise can be employed to determine the range and localization of underwater sound sources. This approach can aid in understanding underwater sea forms and contribute to passive monitoring systems.
- Snapping shrimp noise can be utilized for detecting the presence and depth of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) without the need for active transmissions.
- By studying the marine biology of the IOR, we can apply similar models and techniques for impulsive animal noise.
""Creating proper ambient noise maps of the Snapping Shrimp Noise requires us to study the entire soundscape of the frequency range in which this noise is significant and identify other sources of noise that are operational in this range.""
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