JASCO Applied Sciences (Canada) Ltd has been selected by Port Metro Vancouver and Ocean Networks Canada to provide real-time passive acoustic monitoring of vessel traffic in the Strait of Georgia, BC, Canada, in order to study the potential impacts of shipping noise on marine mammals.

Two listening stations—each comprised of an AMAR Observer with a small spatial array of hydrophones and an AMAR Projector—were deployed on the major shipping route to Vancouver. These two systems are connected to shore in real-time via Ocean Networks Canada’s VENUS fibre optic cabled subsea observatory, which allows people and automated systems ashore to listen, measure, and characterize underwater sounds in the Strait of Georgia in real-time. AMAR Projectors calibrate and test the receiving arrays and will be useful in future planned experiments in underwater communications and navigation. These listening stations form part of the Enhancing Cetacean Habitat and Observation (ECHO) Program.

JASCO has begun monitoring and measuring underwater sound at the Fundy Ocean Research Center for Energy (FORCE) tidal energy berth sites in the Bay of Fundy, Parrsboro, Nova Scotia.

The cabled monitoring system, designed and assembled in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, is “world-leading ocean technology that helps protect our marine environment,” said Scott Carr, CEO of JASCO Applied Sciences. It is deployed on FORCE’s Fundy Advanced Sensor Technology mini-platform, an underwater framework that captures data from the site with onboard sensing equipment. “To harness the enormous power of the Bay of Fundy responsibly, we have to understand it. The FAST platforms give us a clearer, moment-by-moment picture of what’s happening under the water,” said FORCE general manager Tony Wright.