Marine mammals are vulnerable to changes in their habitat, and the changes that are introduced as a result of human activities are having an increasingly detrimental effect. The monitoring of these animals in the past has been limited and opportunistic at best, and restricted to short time scales, regions and depths. This has prompted the development of more effective, larger scaled monitoring projects. By monitoring these animals acoustically through their vocalisations, it is possible to use acoustic observatories in strategic locations around the world to monitor and build conservation strategies for vulnerable species. The observatories are connected to a research station on shore which eliminates portable memory and power restrictions. This paper describes some of these cabled acoustic observatories and the data that can be obtained from them. It also describes how the data from the stations, and passive acoustic monitoring in general can be used to evaluate population density, which is important in conservation management. Of all the pressures facing marine mammals in their habitat, anthropogenic noise is probably the one with most cause for concern. Excessive noise can be fatal to marine mammals and it’s vital that it is properly evaluated and understood, as with the use of cabled acoustic observatories.
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