Monitoring noise impacts
A Marine Data Buoy deployed off the coast of Baltimore, west Cork is to monitor how noise impacts whales and dolphins.
The pioneering Smart Whale Sounds project is being undertaken by Ocean Research and Conservation Association (ORCA) Ireland, a non-profit organisation based in Cork, in partnership with Rainforest Connection and supported by Huawei Ireland. The buoy is being supplied by JFC Marine.
An autonomous hydrophone, akin to an underwater microphone, will be attached to the buoy. It will record whale species in real-time and train sophisticated machine learning models to identify different species calls, researchers said.
The data will be used to create a marine wildlife detection and classification model, which has the potential to be applied to other projects across the globe, they added. It will assist with the identification and classification of species in Irish waters, their distribution and behaviour, and how noise pollution is changing these patterns.
JFC’s Marine Division offers a complete range of Data Buoy platforms up to Ø3000mm diameter suitable for a wide range of monitoring at sea.
By Jake Frith
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