LifeWatch observatory data: permanent Cetacean passive acoustic sensor network in the Belgian part of the North Sea
Citable as data publication
Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ), Belgium; (2025): LifeWatch observatory data: Permanent Cetacean passive acoustic sensor network in the Belgian Part of the North Sea. Marine Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.14284/781
Previous versions (2) view Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ), Belgium; (2023): LifeWatch observatory data: permanent Cetacean passive acoustic sensor network in the Belgian part of the North Sea. Marine Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.14284/639 Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ), Belgium; (2021): LifeWatch observatory data: permanent Cetacean passive acoustic sensor network in the Belgian part of the North Sea. Marine Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.14284/447 Contact:
Debusschere, Elisabeth ;
Availability:
 This dataset is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.Description
As part of the Belgian LifeWatch observatory, a permanent Cetacean passive acoustic network is established in the Belgian Part of the North Sea. The sensor network uses C-PODs (Chelonia Limited) to register the presence of harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) in the neighbourhood. Click trains of harbour porpoises are detected and classified using the CPOD software and high and moderate quality click trains are selected. The dataset is published yearly aggregated per hour. In related datasets, described below, aggregated data per minute is available. The network records echolocation clicks of harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) and dolphins. https://www.lifewatch.be/en/cetacean-passive-acoustic-network Lineage
Prior to publication data undergo quality control checked which are described in https://github.com/EMODnet/EMODnetBiocheck?tab=readme-ov-file#understanding-the-output Scope Themes: Biology > Acoustics, Biology > Ecology - biodiversity, Biology > Mammals Keywords: Marine/Coastal · Bio-geographical regions · Biota · C-PODs · Data · Echolocation · Environment · EurOBIS calculated BBOX · Geoscientific Information · Habitats and biotopes · Harbour porpoises · LifeWatch · Marine mammals · Metadata non conformant · Metadata not evaluated · National · No limitations to public access · Oceans · Passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) · Sea regions · WGS84 (EPSG:4326) · XYZ ASCII · Belgian Continental Shelf (BCS) · Phocoena phocoena (Linnaeus, 1758) Geographical coverage Belgian Continental Shelf (BCS) Stations
[Marine Regions] bpns-Wenduinebank West Coordinates: X: 2,8126; Y: 51,2872 [Lat/long] bpns-VG2 Coordinates: X: 2,802; Y: 51,4325 [Lat/long] bpns-WK12 Coordinates: X: 3,107; Y: 51,4612 [Lat/long] bpns-D1 Coordinates: X: 2,6432; Y: 51,2325 [Lat/long] bpns-Birkenfels Coordinates: X: 2,5338; Y: 51,6493 [Lat/long] bpns-Oostdyck West Coordinates: X: 2,4387; Y: 51,2858 [Lat/long] Lottobuoy Coordinates: X: 2,9833; Y: 51,5667 [Lat/long] Reefballs_cpower Coordinates: X: 2,8126; Y: 51,7044 [Lat/long] bpns_Oostendebank Oost Coordinates: X: 2,8653; Y: 51,2892 [Lat/long] bpns-Gootebank Coordinates: X: 2,8787; Y: 51,4492 [Lat/long] bpns_Reefballs Belwind Coordinates: X: 2,8126; Y: 51,7044 [Lat/long] L S T 420 Coordinates: X: 2,6778; Y: 51,2575 [Lat/long] WK9 Coordinates: X: 3,102; Y: 51,4553 [Lat/long] bpns_Oostendebank Oost Coordinates: X: 2,8653; Y: 51,2892 [Lat/long] Reefballs_cpower Coordinates: X: 2,8653; Y: 51,7044 [Lat/long] EurOBIS calculated BBOX Stations
Bounding Box Coordinates: MinLong: 2,3; MinLat: 51,2325 - MaxLong: 3,107; MaxLat: 51,705 [WGS84] Temporal coverage
From 2014 on [In Progress] Quasi continuous (< 1 min.) 21 June 2015 - 1 January 2023 (EurOBIS harvested data) Taxonomic coverage
Phocoena phocoena (Linnaeus, 1758) [WoRMS]
Parameters
Development stage of biological entity specified elsewhere [BODC] DPM = detection positive minutes Milliseconds= duration of clicks Number_clicks_filtered = total number of harbour porpoise clicks Number_clicks_total = total number of clicks recorded, regardless of origin Presence or absence of biological entity specified elsewhere by using 0 or 1 binary classification [BODC] Contributors
Vlaams Instituut voor de Zee (VLIZ), more, principal investigator, data creator, data manager, researcher
Related datasets
Child datasets: LifeWatch observatory data: permanent Cetacean passive acoustic sensor network in the Belgian part of the North Sea: 2017, more LifeWatch observatory data: permanent Cetacean passive acoustic sensor network in the Belgian part of the North Sea: 2018, more LifeWatch observatory data: permanent Cetacean passive acoustic sensor network in the Belgian part of the North Sea: 2019, more LifeWatch observatory data: permanent Cetacean passive acoustic sensor network in the Belgian part of the North Sea: 2021, more LifeWatch observatory data: Inter-click intervals of harbour porpoises recorded from two F-POD stations of the Belgian cetacean passive acoustic network in 2023, more LifeWatch observatory data: permanent Cetacean passive acoustic sensor network in the Belgian part of the North Sea: 2014, more LifeWatch observatory data: permanent Cetacean passive acoustic sensor network in the Belgian part of the North Sea: 2015, more LifeWatch observatory data: permanent Cetacean passive acoustic sensor network in the Belgian part of the North Sea: 2016, more LifeWatch observatory data: permanent Cetacean passive acoustic sensor network in the Belgian part of the North Sea: 2020, more LifeWatch observatory data: permanent Cetacean passive acoustic sensor network in the Belgian part of the North Sea: 2022, more LifeWatch observatory data: permanent Cetacean passive acoustic sensor network in the Belgian part of the North Sea: 2023, more LifeWatch observatory data: permanent Cetacean passive acoustic sensor network in the Belgian part of the North Sea: 2024, more Published in: EurOBIS: European Ocean Biodiversity Information System, more Other relation: Cpodnetwork: LifeWatch observatory data: acoustic receivers data from the permanent Cetacean passive acoustic sensor network in the Belgian part of the North Sea, more Project
LifeWatch: Flemish contribution to LifeWatch.eu, more
Funding FWO International research infrastructure
Grant agreement ID I002021N
Publication
Describing this dataset
Calonge, A. et al. (2026). Scalable low-cost seabed landers: The missing link for sustained, integrated, long-term observations in dynamic shallow seas. Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation Online first: 1-9. https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/rse2.70072, more
Calonge, A. et al. (2024). Cetacean passive acoustic network in the Belgian part of the North sea. Scientific Data 11(1): 971. https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-03806-y, more
URLs
Dataset information: Other: Dataset status: In Progress
Data type: Data
Data origin: Sensor platform
Release date: 2021-10-26
Metadatarecord created: 2017-01-03
Information last updated: 2026-03-05
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