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OrcaSound Project Design

Project design:
  • Once an unusual, man made, or natural sound is identified, the participant is instructed to make an entry on  a community spreadsheet and send an email to an inbox maintained by the researchers. From there, the data is aggregated and used to study when the southern resident orcas and other species are active in the Salish Sea. researchers can then make recommendations to policy makers about noise pollution levels and activity levels of the aquatic wildlife. 
  • Reviewing data could be made easier by creating some sort of tool or app that allows the listener to flag the exact time within the audio recording that they heard the sound. The way that the project is set up now, participants can only describe what they heard and only through running a separate software program can they provide an audio clip of what they heard. This limits the quality of data being collected.
  • I think the partnerships that OrcaSound have forged in order to maintain the hydrophones are a good way to keep funding going for monitoring programs.
  • The results are shared online via recorded examples of sounds, a collaborative spreadsheet, and live audio feeds. OrcaSound is focused not only on sharing with the public via educational opportunities but also with other scientists who are doing similar work along the Canadian coast. Here is the link to the citizen scientist observation log spreadsheet.

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