The
National Marine Mammal Foundation is happy to make available
the most recent release of the Marine Mammal Movement and
Behavior (3MB)
software package. The 3MB software is a component of the
Effects of Sound on
the Marine Environment (ESME) software package but is also
available as a
stand-alone package, which can be downloaded from this
page.
The
3MB
software allows the creation of simulated aquatic species, or
animats. Each animat consists of a
series of behavioral states with probabilities of transition
between states
that can be modified according to abiotic
factors
(e.g. time of day, bathymetry). Each behavioral state contains
controls for
dictating the various components of an animat's
dive
behavior, including depth, ascent and descent speed,
horizontal rate of travel,
surface time, etc. Animat
movements may also be
constrained by bathymetric features and animats
can
be made responsive to simulated sound exposures. Furthermore,
animats may function as
individuals or be constrained to
"pod" behavior.
The
3MB
software permits the exploration of species dive behavior and
provides an
approach to estimating acoustic impacts to marine mammals when
integrated with
a suitable sound propagation model. Simple sound sources are
made available in
3MB and a suite of "aversive" behaviors that are triggered
above a
threshold response can be programmed by the user. This permits
the exploration
of possible response scenarios to sound exposure, including
the potential for
beaching.
The
package
contains the following:
Marine
Mammal
Movement and Behavior (3MB) executable
Species
Builder
executable
Bathymetry
files
(Bahamas, Mid-Atlantic Bight, Southern
California Bight)
Sound
Source
files (one mobile and one stationary sound source)
Species
files
User
Manual
MatLab
scripts (for processing 3MB output files)
The
3MB
software is free to the public. Its development was made
possible by
support from the Office of Naval Research (ONR) Marine Mammals
and Biology
(MMB) program. We would like to extend special thanks to Heat,
Light and Sound
Research, Inc. for hosting 3MB on the Ocean Acoustics Library
website.
If
you
find bugs or errors in the software, please report them to
matt.cross@nmmf.org. Recommendations
for feature enhancement
should be sent to dorian.houser@nmmf.org. We will attempt to
address bug-fixes
and enhancements in future releases of 3MB.
Sincerely,
Dorian
S. Houser, Ph.D.
Director
of
Conservation and Biological Research
National
Marine
Mammal Foundation
