SMRU Consulting

Marine Mammal Monitoring: Methods, Technologies and Opportunities for Innovation

Great to see our Coastal Acoustic Buoys, (CAB Guardian & CAB Sentinels) included in this review of cutting edge tech for marine mammal monitoring by Institute of Marine Engineering, Science & Technology (@imarest.bsky.social ) & DEFRA
www.imarest.org/resource/mar...

Happy World Orca Day everyone! We have just picked up SRKW on our Lime Kiln hydrophone as of 12:07 p.m. and the Haro Strait and Boundary Pass voluntary ship Slowdowns are now in effect!
#WorldOrcaDay #SRKW #ECHOProgram

🐋Proud to have contributed to this independent science panel on #SRKW recovery, alongside colleagues from @raincoast.org @georgiastraitbc.bsky.social @seadocsociety.bsky.social @nrdc.org @oceansinitiative.org @wwfcanada.org @davidsuzukifdn.bsky.social @ubcoceans.bsky.social @sfuscience.bsky.social

Funded by the 'Offshore Wind Evidence and Change' programme, lead by the The Crown Estate, Crown Estate Scotland, Scottish Government's Marine Directorate

#OffshoreWind #OWF #PrePAREDProject #OWEC #RenewableEnergy #OffshoreWindFarms #MarineMammal #CumulativeEffects #CEA #EIA

This follows on from the release of Report 007. This report, and all project outputs, are available here: owecprepared.org/outputs/

Hear from the author, Rachael Sinclair of SMRU Consulting, followed by a live Q&A.

Microsoft Virtual Events Powered by Teams Microsoft Virtual Events Powered by Teams

📣 PrePARED WEBINAR 📣

The Predators & Prey Around Renewable Energy Developments (#PrePARED) project is hosting a webinar on the Challenges & Solutions for Offshore Wind Farm Cumulative Effects Assessments for Marine Mammals.

🗓️ Tue 15 Jul, 12-12:30 (BST)
events.teams.microsoft.com/event/c2565c...

Notes from the field – 30th June 2025 — SMRU Consulting In early March almost half of the St. Andrews-based Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU) Consulting team were away from the office on field-related work. In one effort we had a team of four in Cromarty set...

Check out our new Notes from the field blog post about deploying 30 PAM moorings at the Dogger Bank Wind Farm!

www.smruconsulting.com/blog/notes-f...

#Fieldwork #PAM #OffshoreWind

Sensitivity of density estimates to off-axis beam pattern assumptions in deep-diving odontocetes Density estimation from passive acoustic monitoring requires knowledge of the sound production rates and signal characteristics of animal calls. This study expl

New output from the ONR/LMR-funded #ACCURATE project by @popigk.bsky.social in @asa-news.bsky.social

#passiveacoustics #densityestimation #beampattern #biosonar

@uniofstandrews.bsky.social @seamammalresearch.bsky.social
@au.dk #CREEM #JASA

doi.org/10.1121/10.0...

Bringing whale superhighways to life: WWF and a global coalition of… | Erich Hoyt | 11 comments Bringing whale superhighways to life: WWF and a global coalition of leading scientists, civil society, governments, and tech innovators have launched BlueCorridors.org—a new digital platform combining...

Proud to have contributed to the @wwfnederland.bsky.social #BlueCorridors project!

www.linkedin.com/posts/erich-...

New report on cumulative effects assessments (CEAs) by Rachael Sinclair for the #PrePAREDProject. Here, we recommend guidance for the standardization of CEAs, in order to make them more representative, comparable, thus enabling a more streamlined consenting process.

owecprepared.org/wp-content/u...

Looking forward to attending this hosted by the #PrePAREDProject (Predators and Prey Around Renewable Energy Developments) team on Wednesday 21 May from 12 - 12:30pm GMT+1. You can register here: rb.gy/gav951

#offshorewind #renewables #thecrownestate @exeter.ac.uk

Behavioural response thresholds for the assessment of noise impact on Antarctic marine mammal species Increasing levels of anthropogenic noise in our oceans is concerning, especially in Antarctic waters where marine mammals are more naïve to sound sour…

New paper:
Darias-O'Hara et al. "Behavioural response thresholds for the assessment of noise impact on Antarctic marine mammal species", Marine Policy.

@uniofstandrews.bsky.social @au.dk @seamammalresearch.bsky.social

Funded by@umweltbundesamt.bsky.social

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Happy Friday! Here are some nice #SRKW vocals our #LimeKiln hydrophone recorded in March.

@thewhalemuseum.bsky.social #HaroStrait

Behavioural response thresholds for the assessment of noise impact on Antarctic marine mammal species Increasing levels of anthropogenic noise in our oceans is concerning, especially in Antarctic waters where marine mammals are more naïve to sound sour…

New paper:
Darias-O'Hara et al. "Behavioural response thresholds for the assessment of noise impact on Antarctic marine mammal species", Marine Policy.

@uniofstandrews.bsky.social @au.dk @seamammalresearch.bsky.social

Funded by@umweltbundesamt.bsky.social

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Hello J63!!

Earth Day was extra special this year! In addition to kicking off the first day of Storming the Sound with Salmon, members of the Orca Conservancy team got first looks at the newest calf in J Pod, J63!

📷 J40 with new calf J63 - taken by @intertidalkendy.bsky.social

When Breath Fails: The Deep Difference Between Seals and SEALS What do elite Navy SEALS, world-class free-divers, and marine mammals have in common? They all push the limits of breath-hold endurance—yet only one group evolved with the right warning system to avoi...

Check out this fantastic article for an eloquent explanation of our recent publication in @science.org www.acsh.org/news/2025/03...

Great talk by @kateywhyte.bsky.social from @bioss.bsky.social at the SOI today. So 👏 much 👏 data 👏 Such an exciting project! @uniofstandrews.bsky.social

#notaprilfools | Cormac Booth I'm delighted to announce that today is my first day as Managing Director at SMRU Consulting. It's a very exciting time for the company and I'm looking…

Welcome to our new Managing Director, Dr Cormac Booth

www.linkedin.com/posts/cormac...

Haventus’ dredging operation at our Ardersier Energy Transition Facility… | Haventus Haventus’ dredging operation at our Ardersier Energy Transition Facility is about to get underway, to ensure our harbour and approach channel are deep and wide…

We're proud to have our CAB Guardians for real-time passive acoustic mitigation monitoring in the Moray Firth.
Here's a video from the recent deployment for Haventus, with SMRU Consulting staff Chloe, Jack & Sam.

www.linkedin.com/posts/havent...

🔊 Paper alert! 🐬🎧
Noise of high-speed vessels 🚤 impairs the #biosonar ability of #harbourporpoises 🐬 - making it more difficult for them to
🤯 sense surroundings,
🧭 navigate and
🐟 hunt prey
within several hundred meters.
🥳Huge contribution to understanding masking effects!
🌐 doi.org/10.1242/jeb....

Underwater noise pollution tackled to help killer whales Commercial ships support voluntary ‘slowdown’ in US waters to protect endangered species.

🌊🔊 #QuietSound is tackling underwater noise pollution to protect Southern Resident killer whales! 🐋 Check out IMarEST on the latest efforts to help these majestic creatures. 🌊🔊

Read more: www.imarest.org/resource/mp-...

#MarineLife #KillerWhales #Conservation #underwaternoise

Our acoustic monitoring station at #LimeKiln recorded a magnitude 4.5 earthquake 03/03/25 at 05:02 a.m.! The epicenter was located 30 km away on the east coast of Orcas Island & the earthquake was loud enough underwater to cause audio clipping (remove headphones!)

#TheWhaleMuseum #HaroStrait #PAM

Celebrating the International Day of Women and Girls in Science: Voices from SMRU Consulting — SMRU Consulting Posted FEB 2025 To celebrate the recent International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we interviewed three women at SMRU Consulting to learn about their journeys in science. At SMRU Consulting, w...

To celebrate the recent International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we spoke with three of our scientists: Magda, Meadhbh, and Sam. Read about their career journeys, inspirations and advice for aspiring scientists here: www.smruconsulting.com/blog/celebra... #womeninscience #wimms

🦭 Have you spotted a grey seal killing or eating harbour seals or grey seal pups in the UK? Please send your footage and reports to SMRUsealreports@st-andrews.ac.uk ! 🦭

Humpback whale song complexity and evolution on a northwestern Pacific breeding ground: Okinawa, Japan | Royal Society Open Science Male humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) sing a slowly evolving, sexually selected song display socially learned from conspecifics. Within an ocean basin, song similarity between breeding populations can reveal the degree of connectivity among them. ...

New publication on #humpback acoustics, in @royalsociety.org from our project scientist, @emarwood.bsky.social

@seamammalresearch.bsky.social
@ellengarland.bsky.social @lrendell.bsky.social @francae.bsky.social

royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Proud supervisor moment!

Ella's masters thesis paper on Okinawa humpback #whale #song complexity and evolution is out today in RSOS.

Awesome collaboration with Nozomi Kobayashi et al.

@francae.bsky.social @lrendell.bsky.social @seamammalresearch.bsky.social

doi.org/10.1098/rsos...

New paper! Humpback song evolution in the waters of Okinawa. Great to see this out, another #MSc_MMS_St_A Marine Mammal Science MSc thesis published 🥳 congratulations to Ella and Nozomi. 🐋🦑🧪

tl;dr:

Seals avoid an operating tidal turbine Authors of a recently published study discuss how their research discovered that seals exhibit avoidance of turbines during operation. This finding is important for industry developers and regulato…

See our blogpost on tracking seals around a tidal turbine using the new multibeam sonar processing modules in PAMGuard: appliedecologistsblog.com/2025/02/06/s...

We are hiring a Managing Director! Lead our global organisation at the forefront of marine mammal science, with teams in Scotland, the USA, and Canada. Applications close 10 February 25.

Learn more: ow.ly/MV5350UKRv7

Another paper using PAMGuard. For this one we developed a bespoke PAMGuard module to process multibeam sonar data in order to track seals around an operating tidal turbine. All code and built modules at www.pamguard.org. @jessmontabaranom.bsky.social @seamammalresearch.bsky.social