SMRU Consulting at the World Marine Mammal Conference!
SMRU Consulting are very excited to be heading to the World Marine Mammal Conference in Barcelona in December, 2019.
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12, 2019
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11, 2019
Marine mammals and underwater noise in Antarctica
We were excited to read the recent publication by Erbe et al. (2019) published in ‘Frontiers in Marine Science’, which tackles how we might manage the effects of underwater noise on marine mammals in Antarctica. […]
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09, 2019
The Coastal Acoustic Buoy: a new tool for remote and real-time acoustic monitoring
What do you do when client after client asks about real-time passive acoustic monitoring but are then shocked by the required logistics and cost of a cabled system or a large, long-term buoy-based system? Things get worse when the client also wants to localize any vocalizations and one detection system is just not enough to cover [...]
4
09, 2019
Do Tidal Turbines Affect Bay of Fundy Porpoises?
SMRU Consulting has been monitoring marine mammals around marine renewable energy projects since 2006. Our experience includes the SeaGen device in Northern Ireland at (the world’s first grid connected tidal turbine), the DeltaStream device in Wales, the MeyGen array in northern Scotland (the world’s largest planned tidal turbine project), and since 2009, in the upper Bay [...]
5
07, 2019
Release of SNH report on Noise Abatement Systems
SMRU Consulting are delighted to announce the release of our latest Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) commissioned report – a review of noise abatement systems (NAS) for offshore wind farm (OWF) construction noise, and the potential for their application in Scottish waters. […]
3
04, 2018
First Ever Sperm Whale in WA Inland Waters
Yukusam is the male sperm whale named after an island to the northeast of Vancouver Island where he was first sighted in February. Now he has moved south and was spotted in the San Juan Islands on March 31st, the first ever sighting of this animal in Washington Inland waters! Generally a deep ocean species, the [...]
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09, 2017
Listening to Southern Resident killer whales
On Monday morning 4 September, we got word that the Southern Resident killer whales were inbound from the Pacific Ocean. It had been over a month since members of this endangered killer whale population had been seen in the Salish Sea. […]
22
05, 2017
Moving slowly in all the right places – killer whales and reduction of noise effects
This summer a voluntary commercial vessel slowdown trial is planned to take place in the core summer habitat of Southern Resident killer whales. SMRU Consulting North America have played a significant role in the development and implementation of this exciting noise mitigation focused trial which is being led by Vancouver Fraser Port Authority’s ECHO Program. [...]
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03, 2017
Annex IV video: monitoring around tidal turbines
In January the Annex IV expert forum met to discuss the challenges associated with the environmental monitoring around tidal turbines. The video can be viewed below. […]
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12, 2016
Ocean Noise – Something to make a lot of noise about!
Last week was Ocean Noise Week at NOAA. NOAA and the US Office of National Marine Sanctuaries have listed ocean noise as a national issue -an issue that affects the numerous marine sanctuaries in US waters. […]
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09, 2016
A whale sized recovery for the humpback whale
This week we saw some really uplifting news in the whale world. The US government announced that they were removing almost all of the world’s humpback whale populations from the endangered species list. To be precise NOAA Fisheries stated in a press release on September 6th that humpback whales in 9 of 14 newly identified distinct populations [...]
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06, 2016
Eavesdropping on killer whales in the Salish Sea
We are thrilled to launch the first of our live passive acoustic monitoring systems, the upgraded Lime Kiln Hydrophone Station is now live streaming around the world! […]
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06, 2016
NOAA Releases Draft Ocean Noise Strategy Roadmap
This month we were really excited to see the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) release their draft Ocean Noise Strategy Roadmap for public comment. This is the first coordinated initiative by the US regulator to address issues of man-made noise in the oceans. And, SMRU Consulting is already collaborating on this novel effort [...]
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04, 2016
Ursulas new book chapter
We are proud to announce the publication of a new book entitled: Listening in the Ocean by Whitlow Au and Marc Lammers- in which our own Dr Ursula Verfuss co-authored the chapter: Listening to Echolocation Clicks with PODs. […]
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02, 2016
Different ships produce different amounts of noise
SMRU Consulting scientist Jason Wood had a paper published this week on shipping noise, which at close range has high frequency components that could have the potential to mask endangered Southern Resident killer whale calls or echolocation clicks. […]
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07, 2015
Subsampling PAM – Dangers of duty cycles
Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM) can be a great tool to monitor marine mammal presence over wide areas and long time periods. However, there can be large costs associated with retrieving and replacing the recorders – for example, those deployed offshore or in dynamic environments may require significant time, specialist vessels and personnel in order to retrieve and [...]
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05, 2015
Right whales may have distinct ‘voices’
A really cool new study has found that right whales may have “distinctive voices” in their upcalls. This could be functionally similar to the way dolphins have signature whistles. […]