Resumen
The MARCET project (MAC/1.1b/149) aims to monitor the health status of resident cetaceans in Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) of particular interest for whale-watching in Macaronesia. This study, performed in the Canary Islands, Spain, used an autonomous surface vehicle (Waveglider®?) to detect cetacean species using passive acoustic monitoring (PAM). The automatic detections, via an acoustic acquisition system (Pambuoy), were compared with human detections for the same period. Although automatic detections were lower than human detections, this experiment has allowed the intercomparison of these two techniques, the system?s performance, and its improvement by system re-setting. The present work, carried out with a close cooperation between biology, engineering, and oceanography, will integrate with veterinary sciences. The evaluation of ocean ecosystems, cetacean health, and human activities by means of advanced technologies will provide a novel and integrative One Health approach to current and future studies.