KOCHI: Department of Electronics at Cusat is collaborating with SONY under the Sensing Solution University Collaboration (SSUC) programme to develop an intelligent sensor node network that can monitor marine habitats.
According to the research team, increased human activities in oceans account for underwater noise pollution. “Changes in the acoustic noise landscape of the ocean severely affect marine habitats. It is noticed that the ambient background noise interferes with the sense of hearing of marine mammals, making it harder for them to hunt, navigate and communicate, eventually leading to their extinction. At present, the marine environment is very noisy, and most of the noise is manmade,” said the researchers.
There is a need to monitor the acoustic ambience of the ocean to mitigate the effects of noise pollution on marine habitats. According to the team, marine animals use hearing for many purposes like navigation, communication, and foraging. “Some animals use echolocation to determine the distance from objects including prey and predators. For instance, dolphins use sonar clicks when they confront an object to determine its location. Noise trauma damages their hearing and long exposure can often cause permanent deafness. Mammals often avoid noisy areas, which can be a problem if these locations are important feeding or breeding grounds,” they added.
According to researchers, the project is to develop the sensor network to help fill the gap in the global efforts to collect, monitor and analyse acoustic noise pollution in the ocean and understand its threat to marine habitats. “The system helps to intelligently monitor the acoustic landscape of the ocean with near-zero human intervention,” they said.