Telemetry to Monitor Underwater Sound in Killer Whale Habitat
Years of development culminated in a MacArtney telemetry concept measuring and transmitting individual noise profiles for complex acoustic data tracking to help preserve and recover one of Canada’s most iconic species: the Southern Resident Killer Whale.
Under the Canadian Species at Risk Act, the Southern Resident Killer Whale was recently concluded to be facing an approaching threat to survival and recovery. At Boundary Pass in the Salish Sea, an enhanced monitoring project provides an underwater sound picture of the Southern Resident Killer Whale’s habitat, consequently rendering the most effective noise reduction measures.
The Jasco Underwater Listening Stations (ULS), commissioned by Transport Canada under the federal government’s five-year Whales Initiative, will passively track endangered whales and thousands of commercial vessels frequenting British Columbia’s southern ports on an annual basis.
The Jasco ULS each comprise two MacArtney Mini-T multiplexer systems and one MacArtney LUXUS HD camera. The MacArtney Mini-T multiplexers enable the Jasco ULS to provide real-time communications to shore via a subsea fiber-optic cable. The sensor suite aboard each ULS includes: hydrophones, high-definition video camera, LED light, ADCP and CTD.