Posted at 10:00 a.m.
Off Rimouski, a buoy serves as an ear for Innovation Maritime (IMAR) researchers in their work analyzing the diffusion of noise emitted by boats sailing on the St. Lawrence.
This is because these sounds can have significant impacts, depending on their frequencies and the distance over which they are transported by water. “We know that radiated noise causes stress, growth delays and reproductive difficulties in certain marine mammals,” explains Alexandre Boudreau, director of business development at Innovation Maritime.
IMAR leads the MARS project, to Marine Acoustic Research Station, which aims to “better understand the propagation of noise emitted by ships, and to propose reduction methods,” underlines Mr. Boudreau. This college center for technology transfer, located in Rimouski, aims to support companies in the maritime sector through innovation.
Last year, IMAR deployed research stations on the St. Lawrence, just opposite Rimouski. “We go on ships to collect as many acoustic footprints as possible,” emphasizes Alexandre Boudreau. On board, a team of researchers is tracking sounds, in order to find all sources of noise. In the water, buoys pick up the noises that travel through the water.
We want to be able to correlate noise sources and their effect in the marine environment.
Alexandre Boudreau, Director of Business Development at Innovation Maritime
IMAR is carrying out this work in partnership with the Institute of Marine Sciences of Rimouski (ISMER) of the University of Quebec at Rimouski (UQAR).
At the end of this research, the MARS project aims to assess possible solutions to reduce harmful noise in the marine environment. This may consist of the installation of solutions on board, such as systems intended to reduce vibrations, but also in the use of paints capable of absorbing noise. “Some solutions in aeronautics, to reduce noise inside planes, could be transposed to the maritime sector,” he adds.
An interest abroad
IMAR’s research arouses the interest of certification bodies and international research centers, which follow the progress of the work. The research center has just presented its research at the international Seatech Week conference in Brest, France.
This international interest comes from different regions of the world that are grappling with the same problems of harmful impact of ship noise on marine mammals. For their part, shipowners are working to reduce their environmental footprint, driven by an awareness and by the development of increasingly strict international regulations in the face of environmental impacts, explains Alexandre Boudreau.
Rimouski’s geographic location is ideal for carrying out this work, due to the water depth on the waterway. “International standards require that sound measurements be taken at certain depths, which is not possible everywhere,” notes Mr. Boudreau.