JASCO celebrates Earth Day 2023
/To celebrate Earth Day 2023, JASCO offices around the world organized events to give back to their communities and invest in our planet.
Read MoreTo celebrate Earth Day 2023, JASCO offices around the world organized events to give back to their communities and invest in our planet.
Read MoreA landmark Topical Collection on Western Gray Whales and Industry Seismic Operations of 10 peer-reviewed original articles has been published in the journal Environmental Monitoring and Assessment. This comprehensive collection arises from decades of studies of the effects of offshore oil and gas development on the grey whales that gather every summer off Sakhalin Island, Russia. JASCO scientists were involved since 2004 in the underwater acoustics field work and analyses that fed into these papers, in addition to contributing to the yearslong real-time mitigation effort that ensured whales would not be exposed to excessive sound emissions from offshore activities and airguns.
Read MoreTwo leading players in the sector of shipping noise mitigation have formally joined forces as DW-ShipConsult GmbH becomes a fully owned affiliate of JASCO Applied Sciences (Deutschland) GmbH. The announcement was made by the respective Managing Directors, Thomas Büchler and Roberto Racca, after the acquisition agreement was signed in Berlin on May 2.
Read MoreIn their article titled Doing Business on Mighty Waters - Uncrewed published in the Marine Mammals special issue of ECO Magazine, JASCO Applied Sciences’ John Moloney and Open Ocean Robotics’ Julie Angus discuss the ‘Marine Mammal Monitoring Service via Uncrewed Surface Vessel’ project, sponsored by Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC) for the Innovations Solutions Canada program.
Read MoreJASCO Applied Sciences secures a new facility in Rhode Island to support its US operations. The 3000 square-foot facility is located at 165 Dean Knauss Drive, Narragansett, just in behind the University of Rhode Island’s Bay Campus. Initially consisting of two 1500 square foot bays providing office and lab space along with a marine acoustics services and autonomous vehicles support facility, the new location will open in April 2022.
Read MoreAs described in a recent article in MarineLink, BC Ferries has some key findings to pass along to other vessel operators considering the implementation of underwater radiated noise targets. Important lessons were learned during investigations of how they might reduce the noise from their passenger ferries transiting the Salish Sea, which is home to the endangered southern resident killer whales (SRKWs).
Read MoreIn a feature article titled Protecting Killer Whales in Salish Sea – Cabled Underwater Listening Station Monitors Ship Noise in the July issue of Sea Technology Magazine, JASCO Applied Sciences’ Nicole Chorney, Jack Hennessey, and David Hannay describe an advanced multi-sensor underwater observatory deployed off British Columbia’s south coast that keeps watch on noise from passing ships and has the ability to track endangered Southern Resident killer whales.
Read MoreJohn Moloney is host to a Teledyne Webb Research webinar that describes the unique capabilities of JASCO’s OceanObserver acoustic and oceanographic data acquisition and processing system aboard the Teledyne Slocum Glider, as demonstrated in a successful mission to Canada's Gulf of St. Lawrence in 2018 in search of critically endangered North Atlantic right whales.
Read MoreJune 10, 2021, marks the first full year of operation of the Boundary Pass Underwater Listening Station. Over this period, the cabled listening station has provided highly accurate measurements of the underwater noise from more than 4500 unique commercial vessels on over 7500 transits.
Read MoreIn the May issue of Ocean News & Technology, JASCO’s Chief Communications Officer Roberto Racca gives a panoramic on new mobile platforms apt to be equipped with acoustic monitoring instruments to both detect the presence of vocalizing marine animals and assess their exposure to noise from construction and operation of offshore wind farms.
Read MoreA merchant vessel has received the first ever underwater environmental noise emissions notation from an international vessel certification organization. The newly built Onex Peace, an Aframax class crude oil tanker built by Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries and delivered to Onex, received DNV’s first SILENT-E notation on its class registration, making it the world’s first commercial vessel to receive this type of notation. The notation is part of a larger effort to encourage ship owners and builders to lower the ecological footprint of their vessels.
Read MoreA video production featuring thoughts and recollections from some of the preeminent scientists of the past half century in the field of underwater acoustics has been published by the Institute of Acoustics and the UK Acoustics Network to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the A B Wood medal. The medal with attendant prize is awarded in alternate years to acousticians based in the UK/Europe (even years) and in the USA/Canada (odd years). One of the 24 medal winners featured in the video is Dr. Michael Ainslie, a senior scientist with JASCO Applied Sciences based in the Netherlands.
Read MoreOn December 10, 2020 Dr. Bruce Martin hosted a webinar titled “How Does Sound Travel in High Energy Environments? Effectiveness of Acoustic Monitoring Systems and Turbine Audibility Assessment”.
To support tidal energy development in the Bay of Fundy, researchers are designing and implementing a long-term acoustic monitoring program. In preparation, specialized acoustic instrumentation was deployed for two months in Grand Passage to better understand how the turbulent waters affect our ability to detect marine mammals, and to what extent these animals can detect a tidal turbine.
Read MoreRoberto Racca and Klaus Lucke of JASCO Applied Sciences dive into the soundscape of the abyss in ECO Magazine’s Deep Sea special issue:
Life in the depths is adapted to wholly different conditions than exist near the surface, with increasingly high static pressure and decreasing or no light. Here, animals create their own light through bioluminescence. What of their hearing abilities? To understand how deep-sea animals perceive their environment, a group of Australian experts joined an international research expedition in the Indian Ocean. The question was whether deep-sea fish have a keener sense of hearing compared to their shallow-water counterparts.
Read MoreJASCO scientist Dr. Klaus Lucke hosted an informative webinar titled Regulatory Approaches to Underwater Noise – An International Comparison. He provides an overview of the most prominent national and international noise regulations. Focussing entirely on marine mammals, parallels and differences in approaches taken by countries, regional agreements, and multinational organisations are presented.
Read MoreIn the recent Polar special issue of ECO Magazine, JASCO’s Roberto Racca and David Hannay describe how an ambitious acoustic monitoring program helped advance our understanding of Arctic ecology:
From 2006 to 2015, several oil and gas companies performed exploratory campaigns … in the northeastern Chukchi Sea. Some of these companies funded multidisciplinary long-term environmental projects to collect ecological baseline measurements and inform regulatory permit applications. The Chukchi Sea Environmental Studies Program (CSESP), the largest of these multi-year studies, included a large passive acoustic monitoring component. Led by JASCO Applied Sciences, the acoustic element of the program enabled scientists to describe how vocal marine mammals use the northeastern Chukchi Sea throughout the seasons, and to characterize the natural and human-made soundscape of the area.
Read MoreA milestone in ecologically friendly marine transportation for Atlantic Canada was reached on Aug. 12 with the launch ceremony of the first Cape Islander style vessel to be refitted for electric propulsion. The Peggy’s Cove Express, a diesel-powered tour boat (formerly a fishing vessel), was converted to a hybrid system with a clean, battery-powered electric motor in parallel with the original diesel engine. Renamed the Alutasi, this vessel will be Canada’s first Transport Canada Marine Technology Review Board approved boat using electric propulsion powered by lithium-ion batteries.
JASCO measured underwater noise from the original power train, testing various combinations of transit speed. loading conditions and propeller wear, and will soon repeat the measurements for the newly installed electric propulsion system to quantify the environmental benefits of going electric for this style of vessel.
Read MoreJASCO Victoria’s resident bioacoustician and PhD candidate Xavier Mouy is a featured guest on Lumières’ upcoming webinar Bioacoustics - Voices of the Ocean. In this live online event happening Saturday June 27th at 7 p.m. Eastern, Xavier will join fellow researchers from around the world to discuss the threats of ocean noise pollution on mammals and fishes and what we can do about it.
Read MoreJASCO Applied Sciences takes a knee in solidarity with Black Lives Matter.
JASCO’s leadership and global team uphold the respect of human dignity and the value of every person as our guiding principle. We stand in full support of a communal push for humankind to reject all forms of discrimination and prevarication of one individual or group over any other.
–Roberto Racca, JASCO's Chief Communications Officer
As many of us pause and ponder how we, ourselves, can shape and support this long-overdue movement, we’d like to share some resources.
Read MoreFor ten years, Craig Evans has helped make the science curriculum exciting for the kids in Mrs. Tracey Evans’s classroom. Every year Craig teaches the fourth graders at Grosvenor-Wentworth Park Elementary about sound energy and how humans and animals use sound to communicate, even under water. After listening to some animal sounds, the children get to see which ones they sound like with JASCO’s educational DORI software, which stands for Detecting Oceanic Real-time Impersonations. The students thanked Craig and JASCO with dozens of beautifully illustrated cards.
Read MoreCollecting, analyzing, and assessing underwater acoustic data since 1981. International services for all stages of environmental reviews and assessments of underwater noise for the oil and gas, marine construction, energy, fisheries, and defence sectors.
Media articles that refer to JASCO staff, projects, or products.
Open Ocean Robotics raises $4 million to develop autonomous boat
Robotics & Automation News—Jan 31, 2022
Hi-tech fix in the works for whale protection
Lookout News—Nov 30, 2021
Hydrophone study shows NZ link for blue whales
SunLive—Apr 13, 2021
Did ocean noise levels change during the pandemic?
Granite Geek—Apr 8, 2021
Nachhaltige Energiegewinnung durch die Kraft der Gezeiten
FondsDISCOUNT—Mar 17, 2021
Company responsible for underwater noise monitoring project hopes to have global impact
CTV News—Dec 13, 2020
Whale research initiative measuring ocean sounds off Vancouver southwest coast
NEWS 1130/CityNews—Dec 12, 2020
SATURN project aims for a cleaner maritime sector
Irish Tech News—Dec 9, 2020
How underwater acoustics can help us better understand hooded seals
Arctic Focus—May 13, 2020
Despite labour shortages, Nova Scotia's ocean tech sector is booming
CBC News,—Jun 17, 2019
Rare arctic whales found off Irish coast
GalwayDaily—Nov 24, 2018
How to reduce the impact of shipping vessel noise on fish? Slow them down
Science Daily—Nov 5, 2018
Hunting hydrocarbons
Marine Technology News—Oct 4, 2018
Taking it slow can help reduce impacts of Arctic shipping on whales
Mongabay—Aug 28, 2018
La pollution sonore des océans, avec la biologiste acousticienne Héloïse Frouin
CILS FM—Mar 6, 2018
Héloïse Frouin is a JASCO scientist based in Victoria, B.C.
Detecting illegal fishing vessels
ZSL Web News—Jan 10, 2018
Estudios de sonidos del pez sapo
Canal10, Mexico—Dec 15, 2017
Jonathan Vallarta is a JASCO scientist based in Mexico City
"Sound footprint" project
Eagle Wing Tours Web News—Nov 5, 2017
Doc/Postdoc : Le chant des poissons selon Xavier Mouy
Radio-Canada—Sep 24, 2017
Xavier Mouy is a JASCO scientist pursuing a Ph.D. degree at UVic
Spying scientists listen in on fish conversations
CBC News—Aug 5, 2017
Acoustic monitoring of whales and dolphins in New Zealand’s Cook Strait region
NIWA Web News—Jul 31, 2017
Vancouver Port asks ships to slow down for orca research
CBC News—Jul 20, 2017
JASCO is a key participant in these trials to measure ship noise levels
Quiet please, the fish are flirting
Hakai Magazine—Jun 21, 2017
Xavier Mouy is a JASCO scientist pursuing a Ph.D. degree at UVic
Doing what’s best for the ocean
Halifax Partnership—May 10, 2017
Experiential learning creates an ocean of possibility
Halifax Partnership—Mar 31, 2017
Luxury Living for Retired Whales
Hakai Magazine—Mar 2, 2017
Opinion: ECHO Program takes heed of underwater noise and marine life
Vancouver Sun—Feb 21, 2017
Darkwave - Underwater languages at the brink of extinction
CBC News—Sep 28, 2016
Endangered right whale sought in Atlantic marine mammal study
CBC News—May 17, 2016
JASCO provides underwater noise measurement services to first offshore wind farm in North America
Ocean News—Oct 22, 2015
Reduce seismic testing noises to protect whales, study recommends
CBC News—Jan 20, 2014
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