The VLIZ, the Flanders Marine Institute, is receiving half a million euros from the Flemish government to build an intelligent library of underwater sounds. The Ostend-based institute will collect the sounds of fish, passing ships, but also the sounds of sandbanks moving along the seabed. The aim is to develop a system that can filter and recognise underwater sounds, to conduct research, but also to improve protection of the Flemish coast.
A half a million euros for intelligent underwater sound library at the Flanders Marine Institute
Colin Clapson
Published:
The Flanders Marine Institute has been using underwater sounds to conduct research for some time now. An active measurement system located at various places in the sea allows it to check how busy navigation is in certain areas and gain insight into biodiversity and see how many fish and marine mammals live there. By adding more recordings to the library and by using artificial intelligence possibilities for research increase.
Most underwater sounds are audible to the human ear. However, the crowded nature of the North Sea, its relatively shallow depth and reflections make it very difficult to distinguish between them. "Some sound sources, such as a passing ship, are also very dominant," says VLIZ researcher Elisabeth Debusschere "That means you hardly hear anything else. Computer models can do that. By equipping them with artificial intelligence, they should get even better at doing that. It means we have to feed them with as much information as possible, which is the purpose of our sound library."
Monitoring the North Sea by focused listening
Sound is very important underwater, perhaps even more so than on land. Not only because water conducts sound four times better than air, but also because visibility in the sea is often limited, so many marine animals depend on what they hear. Human sounds, from shipping and industry, are a major disturbance for them. The sound library should make it possible to map noise sources in the North Sea, distinguish human sounds from natural noise sources and investigate to what extent man-made sound affects marine life.
The sound library also offers opportunities to improve safety. The growing number of offshore wind turbines and important pipelines on the seabed, means it is becoming increasingly important to keep a close eye on them. "Military personnel could use the system to detect submarines," Debusschere explains, "but also smaller boats that come close to certain pipelines."