On December 10, 2020 Dr. Bruce Martin hosted a webinar titled “How Does Sound Travel in High Energy Environments? Effectiveness of Acoustic Monitoring Systems and Turbine Audibility Assessment”.

To support tidal energy development in the Bay of Fundy, researchers are designing and implementing a long-term acoustic monitoring program. In preparation, specialized acoustic instrumentation was deployed for two months in Grand Passage to better understand how the turbulent waters affect our ability to detect marine mammals, and to what extent these animals can detect a tidal turbine.

JASCO scientist Dr. Klaus Lucke hosted an informative webinar titled Regulatory Approaches to Underwater Noise – An International Comparison. He provides an overview of the most prominent national and international noise regulations. Focussing entirely on marine mammals, parallels and differences in approaches taken by countries, regional agreements, and multinational organisations are presented.

A milestone in ecologically friendly marine transportation for Atlantic Canada was reached on Aug. 12 with the launch ceremony of the first Cape Islander style vessel to be refitted for electric propulsion. The Peggy’s Cove Express, a diesel-powered tour boat (formerly a fishing vessel), was converted to a hybrid system with a clean, battery-powered electric motor in parallel with the original diesel engine. Renamed the Alutasi, this vessel will be Canada’s first Transport Canada Marine Technology Review Board approved boat using electric propulsion powered by lithium-ion batteries.

JASCO measured underwater noise from the original power train, testing various combinations of transit speed. loading conditions and propeller wear, and will soon repeat the measurements for the newly installed electric propulsion system to quantify the environmental benefits of going electric for this style of vessel.

JASCO Victoria’s resident bioacoustician and PhD candidate Xavier Mouy is a featured guest on Lumières’ upcoming webinar Bioacoustics - Voices of the Ocean. In this live online event happening Saturday June 27th at 7 p.m. Eastern, Xavier will join fellow researchers from around the world to discuss the threats of ocean noise pollution on mammals and fishes and what we can do about it.

JASCO Applied Sciences takes a knee in solidarity with Black Lives Matter.

JASCO’s leadership and global team uphold the respect of human dignity and the value of every person as our guiding principle. We stand in full support of a communal push for humankind to reject all forms of discrimination and prevarication of one individual or group over any other.
–Roberto Racca, JASCO's Chief Communications Officer

As many of us pause and ponder how we, ourselves, can shape and support this long-overdue movement, we’d like to share some resources.

For ten years, Craig Evans has helped make the science curriculum exciting for the kids in Mrs. Tracey Evans’s classroom. Every year Craig teaches the fourth graders at Grosvenor-Wentworth Park Elementary about sound energy and how humans and animals use sound to communicate, even under water. After listening to some animal sounds, the children get to see which ones they sound like with JASCO’s educational DORI software, which stands for Detecting Oceanic Real-time Impersonations. The students thanked Craig and JASCO with dozens of beautifully illustrated cards.