In Santa Barbara, underwater sound system tries to keep whales and ships apart

[Mike 03]

Excerpt:

The device could capture whale calls as far as 30 miles away. Cables connected the listening station — about 600 feet below sea level — to a buoy floating on the surface, which would transmit audio frequencies by satellite to scientists on shore.

...

The effort in early August was the latest attempt to prevent ships from running into whales in the channel, where large commercial boats coming in and out of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach cross paths with the feeding grounds of endangered blue, fin and humpback whales.

The initiative, planned to fully launch in early 2020, is designed to alert captains to slow their ships down. The sound system is about two miles away from traffic lanes in the channel that thousands of cargo ships traverse every year.

more at link:

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-08-14/in-the-santa-barbara-channel-an-underwater-sound-system-tries-to-keep-whales-and-ships-apart