Experts
Research Fellow
Kotaro Tanaka
Affiliation
Ocean Policy Research Institute
Division of Ocean Vision and Action
Expertise/Areas of interest
Coastal Management/Marine Conservation Ecology/Underwater Bioacoustics/Audio Signal Processing/Machine Learning
Languages
Japanese/English
Academic/Professional Background
Kotaro Tanaka obtained PhD in Informatics, Kyoto University (2022), with a study titled “Spatio-temporal variation of dugongs’ habitat use and vessel traffic revealed by underwater acoustics information: Toward harmonized coastal management”.
He has worked at current position since 2021. He participated in several projects including maritime communication, ocean observation, ocean digitalization, and climate change and small-scale fisheries, with the common ambition of sustainable coastal management.
Besides the current job, he works as a ECOP (Early Career Ocean Professional) Japan coordinator and tries to expand ECOP network in and out of Japan. He also researches Asia’s ocean-climate policy as a Guest Investigator, Marine Policy Center of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
Prior to the current position, he worked on the biodiversity monitoring via underwater acoustics, as a Visiting Student in Laboratory of Applied Bioacoustics (LAB) in Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), Research Fellow in Japan Fisheries Science and Technology Association, and Adjunct Researcher in Research Organization for Nano & Life Innovation, Waseda University.
He likes walking and cooking paella in his spare time.
Projects
- Demonstrating the Benefit of the Satellite VDES
- Promotion of the Ocean Digital Society
Papers
| Papers | Date of Papers |
|---|---|
| Takuji Noda, Takuya Koizumi, Naoto Yukitake, Daisuke Yamamoto, Tetsuro Nakaizumi, Kotaro Tanaka, Junichi Okuyama, Kotaro Ichikawa, Takeshi Hara “Animal-borne soundscape logger as a system for edge classification of sound sources and data transmission for monitoring near-real-time underwater soundscape”, Scientific Reports 14, 6394. | 2024 |
| Mengyao Zhu, Kotaro Tanaka and Tomonari Akamatsu, “Visualizing the annual transition of ocean policy in Japan using text mining”, Marine Policy, 155, 105754. | 2023 |
| Masaya Katagiri, Shinsuke Kawagucci, Hiromi Kayama Watanabe, Kotaro Tanaka and Tomonari Akamatsu, "Development of edge computing underwater sound recorder to monitor deep sea soundscape," 2023 IEEE Underwater Technology (UT), Tokyo, Japan, 2023, pp. 1-6. | 2023 |
| Kotaro Tanaka, Kotaro Ichikawa, Tomonari Akamatsu, Kongkiat Kittiwattanawong, Nobuaki Arai and Hiromichi Mitamura.
“Spatiotemporal variations in the acoustic presence of dugongs and vessel traffic around Talibong Island, Thailand: Inputs for local coastal management from passive acoustical aspects”, Ocean and Coastal Management, 245, 106810. |
2023 |
| Kotaro Tanaka, Mengyao Zhu, Kohei Miyaji, Tadayuki Kurokawa and Tomonari Akamatsu.
“Spatial distribution maps of real-time ocean observation platforms and sensors in Japanese waters”, Marine Policy, 141, 105102. |
2022 |
| Kotaro Tanaka, Kotaro Ichikawa, Kongkiat Kittiwattanawong, Nobuaki Arai and Hiromichi Mitamura.
“Spatial variation of vocalising dugongs around Talibong Island, Thailand”, Bioacoustics, 1-15. |
2022 |
| Saliza Bono, Sakoto S. Kimura, Sui Hyang Kuit, Jol Ern Ng, Kotaro Tanaka, Kotaro Ichikawa, and Louisa S. Ponnampalam. “Description of the first acoustic recording of spinner dolphins (Stenella longirostris) from the northern straits of Malacca, Malaysia (L)”, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 150(3), 2189-2192. | 2021 |
| Hiromichi Mitamura, Hideaki Nishizawa, Yasushi Mitsunaga, Kotaro Tanaka, Junichi Takagi, Takuji Noda and Masakazu Hori. “Attraction of an artificial reef: a migratory demersal flounder remains in shallow water under high temperature conditions in summer”, Environmental Biology of Fishes, 1-10. | 2021 |
| Chiaki Yamato, Kotaro Ichikawa, Nobuaki Arai, Kotaro Tanaka, Takahiro Nishiyama, and Kongkiat Kittiwattanawong. “Deep neural networks based automated extraction of dugong feeding trails from UAV images in the intertidal seagrass beds”, Plos one, 16(8), e0255586. | 2021 |
| Kotaro Tanaka, Kotaro Ichikawa, Kongkiat Kittiwattanawong, Nobuaki Arai, and Hiromichi Mitamura. “Automated Classification of Dugong Calls and Tonal Noise by Combining Contour and MFCC Features”, Acoustics Australia, Springer. | 2021 |
| Chiaki Yamato, Kotaro Ichikawa, Nobuaki Arai, Kotaro Tanaka, Takahiro Nishiyama, Kongkiat Kittiwattanawong. “Development of an automatic detection method for dugong feeding sound in an intertidal seagrass bed”, Journal of Advanced Marine Science and Technology Society, 26, 1, 1-9. | 2020 |
| Kotaro Tanaka, Kotaro Ichikawa, Hideaki Nishizawa, Kongkiat Kittiwattanawong, Nobuaki Arai, and Hiromichi Mitamura. “Differences in vocalisation pattern of dugongs between fine-scale habitats around Talibong Island, Thailand”, Acoustics Australia, Springer, 45, 243–251. | 2017 |
| Kotaro Tanaka, Kotaro Ichikawa, Hideaki Nishizawa, Kongkiat Kittiwattanawong, Nobuaki Arai, and Hiromichi Mitamura, “Effects of environmental factors on vocalization pattern of dugongs revealed by generalized linear model”, Proceedings of Techno-Ocean2016, Kobe, Japan, October 6–8, 2016 (non-reviewed). | 2016 |
Media
As of April 1, 2025