WhaleSonic: Recordings of cetacean vocal behaviour with hydrophone arrays in Northern Norway

Rychen, J.; Berg, A.; Cohen, J.; Driscoll, I.; Eckerle, A.; Falletta, V.; Filatova, O.; Gies, L.; Hatt, P.; Hiss, A.; Krimmer, F.; Lorenz, C.; Mine, J. G.; Mommsen, C.; Schmidt, F. S.; Ubaghs, R. L. E. M.; Wierucka, K.; Hahnloser, R.

doi:10.64898/2026.11.02.763576

bioRxiv · 10.64898/2026.11.02.763576

WhaleSonic: Recordings of cetacean vocal behaviour with hydrophone arrays in Northern Norway

Rychen, J.·Berg, A.·Cohen, J.·Driscoll, I.·Eckerle, A.·Falletta, V.·Filatova, O.·Gies, L.·Hatt, P.·Hiss, A.·Krimmer, F.·Lorenz, C.·Mine, J. G.·Mommsen, C.·Schmidt, F. S.·Ubaghs, R. L. E. M.·Wierucka, K.·Hahnloser, R.

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Abstract

Killer whales, humpback whales, fin whales, and sperm whales converged in a fjord system in Northern Norway during the 2023-2024 winter, where whale watching and fishing vessels add to the acoustic scene. Cetaceans are intensely studied for their acoustic behaviour and communication, and the co-occurrence of four species in confined waters offers a unique opportunity to record them with hydrophone arrays. We present WhaleSonic, a raw acoustic dataset recorded with two synchronised array systems. Four drifting buoys, each carrying a tetrahedral hydrophone array, captured 78 hours of calibrated recordings; seven bottom-mounted hydrophones yielded 52 days of continuous data. Both systems are synchronised to UTC (<1 us and 3-7 ms) and positioned to 2 m accuracy. Transmission experiments and sound velocity measurements provide in-situ ground truth. All data are in physical units and a unified coordinate system, self-documented in HDF5 files, and published with open-source tools. WhaleSonic supports the development of multichannel algorithms for source separation, localisation, sound field analysis, and group communication in free-ranging cetaceans.

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Rychen, J., Berg, A., Cohen, J., Driscoll, I., Eckerle, A., Falletta, V., Filatova, O., Gies, L., Hatt, P., Hiss, A., Krimmer, F., Lorenz, C., Mine, J. G., Mommsen, C., Schmidt, F. S., Ubaghs, R. L. E. M., Wierucka, K., Hahnloser, R.. 2026-11-03. WhaleSonic: Recordings of cetacean vocal behaviour with hydrophone arrays in Northern Norway. https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.11.02.763576

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