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

“海洋意识”项目是维多利亚大学、IBM加拿大分校和JASCO应用科学研究所的研究人员在加拿大海洋网络(ONC)和土星岛海洋研究和教育学会(SIMRES)的支持下开展的合作项目。研究人员将探索人类活动和环境变化带来的海洋噪音对不列颠哥伦比亚省南部海洋生物的影响。研究将在两个研究区域进行：佐治亚州海峡南部的边界山口(海上交通繁忙，是海洋哺乳动物的重要栖息地)；温哥华岛西海岸的巴克利峡谷(物种多样性高，记录海洋哺乳动物独特/罕见的叫声的区域)。在边界通道中，我们将探索海洋船只和海洋哺乳动物之间的空间和时间相互作用，以及海洋船只噪音造成的声音栖息地退化。在巴克利峡谷，我们将探索海洋哺乳动物的声音与环境变量和人为噪音之间的关系。这项工作的结果将旨在为未来的实时数据分析提供信息，并最终帮助管理人员、规划者和政策制定者了解情况。该项目产生和使用的声学和空间数据也将提供给政府、行业、非政府组织和公众在线可视化和探索。

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.