SAN JUAN ISLAND, Wash. (AP) — At the break of dawn over San Juan Island, a dedicated team of scientists embarked on a mission that could revolutionize marine conservation. On the deck of a barge, they methodically unspooled a mile of fiber-optic cable into the chilly waters of the Salish Sea, seeking to tap into the vocal world of the region's orca populations.
This ambitious project aims to transform standard telecommunication fibers into a comprehensive underwater audio monitoring system, capable of capturing the intricate soundscape of passing whales. By utilizing Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS), scientists from the University of Washington hope to reveal crucial insights into the orcas' reactions to ship traffic, food scarcity, and the effects of climate change.
“Imagine having an array of thousands of hydrophones along the cable, continuously recording data,” explained Shima Abadi, a professor at the University of Washington. “This technology can significantly enhance our understanding of whale migration patterns compared to conventional hydrophones.”
In preceding trials off the Oregon coast, the technology accurately recorded sounds from large baleen whales, demonstrating its potential to offer deep insights into marine wildlife behavior.
Yet, the orcas present a new challenge, as their vocalizations operate at higher frequencies that haven't been fully tested with this technology. If successful, this method could provide real-time data to assist in the conservation of the Southern Resident orcas, a population dwindling to around 75 individuals due to marine pollution, food scarcity, and noise interference.
“The future looks promising,” Dr. Scott Veirs noted, emphasizing the urgent need for data to protect these magnificent creatures, especially as global discussions on marine conservation evolve with treaties permitting new protected areas.
The team also embarked on ensuring that their deployed fibers could yield not just sound recordings of the orcas, but also visual data to correlate specific behaviors with particular calls.
The delicate task of fusing fiber ends on a rolling boat proved challenging, but persistence paid off when the welds were successful, allowing data to begin transmittal to shore computers as waterfall plots, visualizing aquatic sound frequencies. Now, all that remains is to await the presence of orcas.
As the researchers gear up for extensive fieldwork, they remain hopeful that their efforts will pave the way for larger-scale monitoring networks involving the vast infrastructure of fiber-optic cables buried beneath our oceans, crucial for the survival of orcas and the health of fragile marine ecosystems.
