The University of New Brunswick, with the support of Transport Canada, is advancing new proven technology to improve the detection of North Atlantic right whales in part of the shipping lanes in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
Due to the success of its 2019 pilot project, a UNB research lab has launched an underwater acoustic glider that will enhance the surveillance and monitoring of North Atlantic right whales.
This initiative, led by Dr. Kimberley Davies from the UNB Saint John campus, uses an autonomous underwater glider equipped with a digital acoustic monitoring device to detect several species of large whales in the Laurentian Channel shipping lanes, between Anticosti Island and Cape Breton Island, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
The underwater glider will listen to and report on the calls of blue, sei, fin, humpback and North Atlantic right whales in near-real time using technology developed by the Baumgartner Lab at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. These detections will be transmitted to shore every few hours, where they will be validated by a trained analyst. Validated detections will be disseminated via automated systems, including the publicly accessible WhaleMap.
Continue reading at University of New Brunswick.
Image via Ocean Tracking Network.