Ocean awareness - investigating the intersection of marine mammals, ships and sound

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The 'Ocean Awareness' project is a collaboration between researchers at the University of Victoria, IBM Canada and JASCO Applied Sciences with support from Oceans Network Canada (ONC), and Saturna Island Marine Research and Education Society (SIMRES). Researchers will be exploring the effects of marine noise from human activities and environmental changes on marine life in southern British Columbia. The research will be undertaken in two study areas: Boundary Pass in the southern Strait of Georgia (an area with heavy marine traffic and an important habitat for marine mammals); and Barkley Canyon on the west coast of Vancouver Island (an area with a high species diversity and recording of unique/rare vocal calls by marine mammals). In Boundary Pass we will be exploring the spatial and temporal interaction between marine vessels and marine mammals, and the sound habitat degradation due to noise from marine vessels. In Barkley Canyon we will be exploring the relationship between marine mammal sounds and environmental variables, and anthropogenic noise. The findings of this work will aim to inform future real-time data analysis and ultimately help inform managers, planners and policy makers. Acoustic and spatial data generated and used by this project will also be available to visualize and explore online for government, industry, NGOs and the public.