The real-time detection of marine mammals from a solar-powered Uncrewed Surface Vessel (USV), demonstrated to Defence Research and Development Canada
VICTORIA, B.C.—JASCO Applied Sciences and Open Ocean Robotics (OOR) are pleased to announce the successful initial service trial of JASCO’s OceanObserver system onboard OOR’s Data Xplorer USV, for Innovative Solutions Canada’s ‘Real-time Marine Monitoring Service Via Uncrewed Surface Vessel’ program.
The Data Xplorer USV was deployed with OceanObserver passive acoustic sensor and high-resolution camera system in the first service trial in November 2021, near Victoria, B.C. During the 3-day trial, JASCO and OOR successfully demonstrated the service and showcased sensor to web-portal delivery, acoustic marine mammal detections, and camera imagery to DRDC.
The USV was fitted with a towed array and JASCO’s OceanObserverTM Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM) system, capable of on-board, in-situ signal processing by PAMlab INT, the integrated version of JASCO’s PAMlab software suite. OceanObserver successfully detected marine mammal sounds while deployed off the Coast of British Columbia and sent them for verification and validation by acoustic analysts in Halifax, N.S. PortListen was used to deliver detection and contextual information to the analysis team.
PortListen is JASCO’s web-portal information system for enabling stakeholders to visualize, navigate, and share underwater sound detections and measurements. PortListen is a secure and scalable infrastructure with user accounts, protection of client owned information and fully featured data access control mechanisms.
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