Ocean Sonics to deploy sensors on Bay of Fundy tidal project

Ocean Sonics, a Nova Scotia-based designer and manufacturer of digital hydrophones, expects to install its sensoring equipment in the following months for Cape Sharp Tidal project located in the Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia.

As reported earlier, Cape Sharp Tidal, a joint venture formed by Emera and OpenHydro, aims to deploy two 2 MW tidal turbines that could power an estimated 1.000 homes in Nova Scotia, Canada, this fall.

According to Truro Daily News, Ocean Sonics plans to deploy its hydrophones equipment on each turbine with the aim of detecting presence of sea mammals and fish, upon which the turbine personnel would be notified, so that they could slow down or stop the turbine in order to protect the sea mammals and turbine from harm.

“We’ll be deploying four of our icListen Smart Hydrophones mounted on each turbine base to detect the presence of sea mammals and fish nearby. Our underwater listening devices can do this under a full range of tidal conditions. This is new ground for researchers, giving them a fresh view into wildlife behaviour around these machines,” Pierre Almeida, Ocean Sonics Sales and Marketing Co-ordinator, was quoted as saying by Truro Daily News.

Aside from monitoring sea life activities around the turbines, hydrophones will monitor the sounds of operating turbines to detect changes during their operation, Truro Daily News reports.

icListen Smart Hydrophone can be used as digital hydrophone and acoustic data logger. It records and outputs sound data in real units, and can process data while it’s being collected.

Image: Ocean Sonics