12 F-POD USER GUIDE
Another option is to use a remote release mechanism. This allows smaller
anchor weights to be used as surface buoys are not required and therefore
drag is greatly reduced.
Towing
Towing PODs is not recommended, for the following reasons:
▪
Animals are more or less undetectable unless they face the
hydrophone.
▪
Porpoises tend to move away from moving boats and become
undetectable over a width and distance that varies both with boat
characteristics and with porpoise familiarity.
▪
Detection well beyond the range of responsive movement is unlikely
with the POD so no undisturbed data set is available.
▪
Dolphins find towed PODs very interesting and will follow for long
periods and get detected easily, but again the variables controlling this
interaction are almost impossible to determine.
Towing a long way behind a yacht might give a usable way of filling
weather-gaps in survey data for porpoises, and crude dolphin-encounter
data.
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