Marine mammals, such as whales, dolphins, porpoises and seals, use sound to communicate, forage or orient themselves, for example. Sound in the sea from human activity, such as shipping, seismic surveys and the construction of wind farms, can disrupt these animals' natural behaviour. To gain insight into these effects, and to work on limiting disturbance, WaterProof carries out projects worldwide that focus on the effect of human underwater noise on marine mammals.
WaterProof is specialized in performing passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) of marine mammals, whereby we monitor the presence of marine mammals in project areas using hydrophones and acoustic recorders. We also perform visual observations, deploying trained marine mammal observers (MMO) in our projects. These monitoring and measurements are performed worldwide on a wide range of projects, for example in the development of offshore wind farms or in the execution of seismic surveys.
