Pathway - Phase 3 - Tech Validation - Passive Acoustic Monitoring Device - Data Analysis Component of Comparative Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM) Technology Assessment

Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM) technologies are commonly used to monitor echolocating marine mammals in tidal channels, but their detection efficiency is hampered by a series of factors in high flow environments (e.g., flow noise, ambient noise) that can ultimately impede monitoring efforts. In partnership with The Pathway Program, the Fundy Ocean Research Center for Energy (FORCE) conducted an assessment for two ‘stand-alone’ (i.e., CPOD, FPOD) and three ‘conventional’ (i.e., AMAR, SoundTrap, icListen) PAM instruments to understand the operational limitations of these ‘off the shelf’ technologies. The PAM instruments were mounted to a subsea platform and deployed at the FORCE tidal demonstration site. A series of passive drifts were then conducted over the platform from a vessel across a range of tidal flow conditions while playing synthetic clicks (‘pseudo clicks’) emitted from an icTalk. This data was supplemented with that collected from real harbour porpoise transiting the FORCE site