Halifax-based ocean tech company JASCO Applied Sciences to provide real-time acoustic monitoring and detection system for DRDC’s Slocum glider

HALIFAX, N.S.—To outfit its underwater drone with the ability to detect North Atlantic right whales, Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC) purchased an OceanObserver intelligent acoustic monitoring and processing system from Halifax-based environmental science and engineering company JASCO Applied Sciences. DRDC is acquiring the JASCO monitoring system to detect North Atlantic right whales in near-real time, for the Department of National Defence (DND).

JASCO deploys an underwater listening station in the Salish Sea to protect endangered whales and quiet ships, commissioned by Transport Canada

VICTORIA, B.C.—Environmental science and engineering company JASCO Applied Sciences recently installed a world-class underwater listening station in the Salish Sea to track endangered whales and measure underwater noise emissions of thousands of commercial vessels that frequent B.C.’s southern ports. The station consists of two observation frames, each with eight underwater microphones, called hydrophones, installed 190 metres (620 feet) below the shipping lanes of Boundary Pass, about 50 kilometres south of Vancouver.

JASCO Applied Sciences and Teledyne Webb Research have teamed to deploy a Slocum G3 underwater glider fitted with JASCO’s OceanObserver™ intelligent acoustic monitoring system in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. With the support of Dalhousie University and the Ocean Tracking Network, the glider was deployed September 15 in the Orpheline Channel on a 6-week test mission to attempt to detect and record North Atlantic right whales.