In addition to whales and ships, we have recorded a wide range of sounds from environmental phenomena (rain, wind, thunder), as well as fishing boat winches and benthic creatures crawling over the hydrophones.
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Use of Data Products must reference VENUS
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Audio recording made on Feb. 02, 2012 at 22:01:41 UTC in the Strait of Georgia at the East Hydrophone site (170m depth) using an icListen low frequency hydrophone. The low frequency, high energy signals at about three and half minutes in are possibly a localize seismic event or more likely marine animals swimming into and bumping into the hydrophone or the frame the hydrophone is mounted on. |
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Audio recording made on Feb. 01, 2012 at 06:51:22 UTC in the Strait of Georgia at the East Hydrophone site (170m depth) using an icListen low frequency hydrophone. The loud drumming sound that starts at about two minutes in are likely a nearby ship having some mechanical difficulties. |
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Audio recording made on Jan. 31, 2012 at 22:46:22 UTC in the Strait of Georgia at the East Hydrophone site (170m depth) using an icListen low frequency hydrophone. What appear to be frequency sweeps starting at about three minutes in, when amplified and played sound like either a generator or an electric motor spinning up, likely on a nearby ship. |
On March 2, 2010 our Hydrophone array picked up a curious low frequency signal in Strait of Georgia at 170m. We aren’t exactly sure what the source is. The signal appears frequently throughout the day.
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Audio recording made on October 6, 2009 at 14:44:44 UTC in the Strait of Georgia at the East Hydrophone site (170m depth) using Array 02 and Hydrophone #2 (Burns). During this week of October 2009 a fishing boat is frequently heard running a winch. Very likely, the winch is recovering shrimp or crab traps near by. The winch sound is very distinct and clearly mechanical, but does have some spectrogram characteristics very similar to Orca vocalizations. |
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Audio recording made on October 6, 2009 at 14:49:42 UTC in the Strait of Georgia at the East Hydrophone site (170m depth) using Array 02 and Hydrophone #2 (Burns). The same fishing winch as above. Very likely, the winch is recovering shrimp or crab traps near by. The winch sound is very distinct and clearly mechanical, but does have some spectrogram characteristics very similar to orca vocalizations. |
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Audio recording made on January 8, 2010 at 04:54:41 UTC in the Strait of Georgia at the East Hydrophone site (170m depth) using Array 02 and Hydrophone #2 (Burns). A distant deep sea freighter and some bottom animal. The low frequency (100-200Hz) portion of the engine noise persists for tens of minutes and is heard over distances of tens of kilometres. About two minutes into this recording, some bottom resident (crab or fish) crawls or bumps into the hydrophone system, either physically touching the support frame or possibly even touching the hydrophone (submerged microphone) directly. |
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Audio recording made on January 10, 2010 at 12:49:25 UTC in the Strait of Georgia at the East Hydrophone site (170m depth) using Array 02 and Hydrophone #2 (Burns). A distant deep sea freighter with a squeaky shaft. The low frequency (100-200Hz) portion of the engine noise persists for tens of minutes and over distances of tens of kilometres. In fact is is difficult to know if the ship is approaching or receding. Also present is a persistent penetrating rhythmic whining, most likely emanating from the same engine system. |
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A series of sonar “pings” recorded by the VENUS Strait of Georgia Hydrophone Array located in the Eastern Strait of Georgia on January 27, 2010 at 20:44:00 UTC. The pings include both fixed frequency pulses and chirps that sweep through a small range of frequencies. Below are localized small clips of one of each of these ping types from this recording. |
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A sonar ping, most likely from a ship, recorded by the VENUS Strait of Georgia Hydrophone Array located in the Eastern Strait of Georgia on January 27, 2010 at 20:44:00 UTC. The upper panel shows the audio trace, or the raw time series of the digitized audio signal. The lower panel shows the associated spectrogram, with the ping fixed at 2kHz and lasting 2 seconds. |
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A sonar ping, most likely from a ship, recorded by the VENUS Strait of Georgia Hydrophone Array located in the Eastern Strait of Georgia on January 27, 2010 at 20:44:00 UTC. The upper panel shows the audio trace, or the raw time series of the digitized audio signal. The lower panel shows the associated spectrogram, with the ping sweeping through frequencies from 1.7kHz to 2.3 kHz, and lasting just over one second. |
