Acoustics

Latest news

NIWA researchers are out on Lake Whakatipu for the next week mapping the lake floor for the first time.

The critically endangered Māui dolphin is getting a helping hand from scientists this month who are beginning a year-long research project to listen in on them.

The findings of the most complex underwater coastal survey of the seafloor undertaken in New Zealand, including previously undiscovered natural features and sunken boats, are to be formally presented to the Marlborough community tomorrow.
Scientists have discovered an extensive body of freshwater off the Canterbury coast between Timaru and Ashburton.

Latest videos

Mapping the oceans through citizen science

Are you interested in helping map the seafloor? Small data loggers can be used to record information from the positioning (GPS) and echosounding (fish finder) systems of any type of vessel. The Seabed 2030 team can even send a technician to install the device correctly for you.

If you are in the Pacific and keen to be part of a growing community for the Crowdsourced Bathymetry Initiative, please contact: [email protected]

For more info, visit seabed2030.org/crowd-sourced-bathymetry.

Seabed 2030 - filling in the gaps

We know more about the surface of the moon than we do about the surface of our seafloor, with only about 20% of the seafloor properly mapped. The Seabed 2030 project aims to change that with an ambitious target of 100% mapped by 2030. It’s being coordinated through four regional centres around the globe, with NIWA, GNS Science, and Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) jointly governing the South and West Pacific Ocean Regional Center. The area is equivalent to a quarter of the world’s oceans - some 124 million km2. It covers the Pacific Ocean from South America to Australia and the western part of the Northern Pacific Ocean to Japan, taking in 39 countries and territories, and the world’s two deepest trenches. People with common commercial echosounders and Global Navigation Satellite System receivers can be part of this global effort. Check out https://www.gebco.net/about_us/contributing_data/ for more info.

Eavesdropping on sperm whales in Antarctica

Whale researchers such as NIWA Marine Mammal Acoustician Dr Giacomo Giorli are eagerly awaiting the return of RV Tangaroa after its five-week Antarctic voyage.

The moorings team is bringing back precious data from long-term underwater listening devices which the researchers are using to search for signs that sperm whales are finally returning in numbers to the Ross Sea.

Sperm whales were targeted by the whaling industry in the 19th and 20th centuries and more than 70 per cent of their population wiped out. Scientists are now trying to establish if the sperm whale population is making a comeback.
Fisheries scientists use an autonomous vessel

A six metre-long autonomous trimaran fitted out with a battery-powered NIWA echosounder is being used at sea as part of an innovative research collaboration with specialist New Zealand drone company X-Craft Enterprises. The aim is to collect good quality fisheries acoustic data by combining autonomous surface vessels (ASVs) and echosounding technology. Fisheries scientist Richard O’Driscoll is very hopeful this type of technology will help complement the work being done on the larger research ships, as NIWA is trying to improve the way it collects information on fisheries by using alternative survey platforms.

The main advantages of using this type of autonomous vessel to do research are:

(1) It is quiet, minimising fish avoidance;

(2) It is cost-effective, potentially allowing acoustic surveys to be carried out more frequently;

(3) It can cover areas not covered by large research or fishing vessels (e.g nearshore and in lakes).

In its current configuration, the ASV being used by NIWA can collect good quality acoustic data in depths of at least 50 metres and at speeds of over five knots. The electrically-powered vessel can be programmed to follow a specific track, is very quiet, and is equipped with anti-collision technology. The echosounder, attached to the bow of X-Craft's sleek autonomous vessel records internally and is configured to start and stop whenever it gets power.

Although fisheries researchers are now able to combine technologies like these to collect more data at a lower cost, the autonomous vessels will never fully replace larger research ships. Physical sampling to identify what species of fish you are looking at is difficult, for instance. Potential applications for the current technology include NIWA inshore and freshwater fisheries surveys. The next phase of the project is to install and trial a deepwater acoustic system on the ASV, capable of collecting acoustic  data to depths of 1000 m in open ocean environments.

Here are short profiles of some of the amazing people on board.
Tangaroa has sampled more clean seawater from a site not affected by the January 15th eruption of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai (HT-HH).
Tangaroa is off the west coast of Tongatapu collecting seawater to analyse for trace metal.
RV Tangaroa has just completed its last full day of sampling around the waters of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai (HT-HH).
Tangaroa is now 100 km south-west of Hunga Tonga - Hunga Ha’apai volcano (HT-HH), surveying in 2,440 m of water in the Lau Trough.
Tangaroa continues to map the area while deploying instruments to collect samples and capture images of the seafloor.
We started the day by examining the seafloor towards the main island of Tongatapu. As we got closer, the images from the seafloor clearly showed a layer of ash several centimetres thick overlaying the white bedrock of the main Tongan islands.
Over the last 24 hours, we have gone from the deep seafloor at 2,300 m to the shallow slopes of the island of Tongatapu, located to the south-east of the volcano.
Tangaroa has just arrived north of the volcano to deploy the glider. The launch was successful and, after some shallow test dives, the instrument was sent on its first transect.
We have sampled 11 stations today, with different pieces of equipment, starting with rock dredges on a ridge close to Hunga Ha’apai. The samples taken returned a trove of rock specimens that got the geologist onboard excited.
Tangaroa arrived at its next site located 70 km south-west of the caldera. In 2,350 m of water, it is one of the sites used to measure the thickness and composition of the eruptive material deposited on the seafloor.
The crew of RV Tangaroa continues to map the seafloor on the deep northern and western slopes of the volcano, with the aim of identifying areas of morphological change of the seafloor caused by the January 15th eruption.
Today was a busy day on board RV Tangaroa, as we finished sampling at the site where the Tongan domestic communications cable broke over a distance of many kilometres during the Jan 15th 2022 Hunga Tonga - Hunga Ha’apai volcano (HT-HH) eruption.
RV Tangaroa completed its transit to the sampling site, CABLE BREAK WEST which lies at a depth of 1,920 m.
Samples are collected to understand how the seafloor geology, biogeochemistry and ecosystem health has been affected by the volcanic eruption.
You’ll be blown away by what these women in science are doing onboard RV Tangaroa in the Tasman sea!
Mapping the oceans through citizen science

Are you interested in helping map the seafloor? Small data loggers can be used to record information from the positioning (GPS) and echosounding (fish finder) systems of any type of vessel. The Seabed 2030 team can even send a technician to install the device correctly for you.

If you are in the Pacific and keen to be part of a growing community for the Crowdsourced Bathymetry Initiative, please contact: [email protected]

For more info, visit seabed2030.org/crowd-sourced-bathymetry.

Seabed 2030 - filling in the gaps

We know more about the surface of the moon than we do about the surface of our seafloor, with only about 20% of the seafloor properly mapped. The Seabed 2030 project aims to change that with an ambitious target of 100% mapped by 2030. It’s being coordinated through four regional centres around the globe, with NIWA, GNS Science, and Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) jointly governing the South and West Pacific Ocean Regional Center. The area is equivalent to a quarter of the world’s oceans - some 124 million km2. It covers the Pacific Ocean from South America to Australia and the western part of the Northern Pacific Ocean to Japan, taking in 39 countries and territories, and the world’s two deepest trenches. People with common commercial echosounders and Global Navigation Satellite System receivers can be part of this global effort. Check out https://www.gebco.net/about_us/contributing_data/ for more info.

RV Tangaroa has sailed to the Macquarie Ridge to under charter by Australia’s CSIRO Marine National Facility to recover ocean bottom seismometers and acquire multibeam sonar and sub‐bottom profile data in the Macquarie Island region.
Eavesdropping on sperm whales in Antarctica

Whale researchers such as NIWA Marine Mammal Acoustician Dr Giacomo Giorli are eagerly awaiting the return of RV Tangaroa after its five-week Antarctic voyage.

The moorings team is bringing back precious data from long-term underwater listening devices which the researchers are using to search for signs that sperm whales are finally returning in numbers to the Ross Sea.

Sperm whales were targeted by the whaling industry in the 19th and 20th centuries and more than 70 per cent of their population wiped out. Scientists are now trying to establish if the sperm whale population is making a comeback.
Fisheries scientists use an autonomous vessel

A six metre-long autonomous trimaran fitted out with a battery-powered NIWA echosounder is being used at sea as part of an innovative research collaboration with specialist New Zealand drone company X-Craft Enterprises. The aim is to collect good quality fisheries acoustic data by combining autonomous surface vessels (ASVs) and echosounding technology. Fisheries scientist Richard O’Driscoll is very hopeful this type of technology will help complement the work being done on the larger research ships, as NIWA is trying to improve the way it collects information on fisheries by using alternative survey platforms.

The main advantages of using this type of autonomous vessel to do research are:

(1) It is quiet, minimising fish avoidance;

(2) It is cost-effective, potentially allowing acoustic surveys to be carried out more frequently;

(3) It can cover areas not covered by large research or fishing vessels (e.g nearshore and in lakes).

In its current configuration, the ASV being used by NIWA can collect good quality acoustic data in depths of at least 50 metres and at speeds of over five knots. The electrically-powered vessel can be programmed to follow a specific track, is very quiet, and is equipped with anti-collision technology. The echosounder, attached to the bow of X-Craft's sleek autonomous vessel records internally and is configured to start and stop whenever it gets power.

Although fisheries researchers are now able to combine technologies like these to collect more data at a lower cost, the autonomous vessels will never fully replace larger research ships. Physical sampling to identify what species of fish you are looking at is difficult, for instance. Potential applications for the current technology include NIWA inshore and freshwater fisheries surveys. The next phase of the project is to install and trial a deepwater acoustic system on the ASV, capable of collecting acoustic  data to depths of 1000 m in open ocean environments.

2020_10_KAIKOURA_TAN2011_AUV_SOC_young

What part of the canyon have you been operating in so far?

Our focus has been on the middle to lower canyon, about 20 km off the Kaikōura coast. We recovered the AUV this morning in perfect calm conditions, and are now processing the data. It will take a while before the data can be interpreted. 

What have you been able to see? Have you detected any notable changes since the last survey was done in 2017?

We have collected some DTIS towed video camera footage and the first indication is that ecosystem is recovering well. 

What new understanding do we hope to gain?

We are mostly interested in understanding the physical process that has removed such a huge amount of sediment and rock from the canyon. This is a rare opportunity because we know from our previous work that there has a been a very large change recently and this is unusual in the deep ocean. 

Why is it important to understand more about the changes in the canyon?

Submarine canyons are the bridge between the land and the deep ocean, connecting sedimentary sedimentary systems, capturing carbon and supporting rich ecosystems. We have little knowledge of what happens to these marine hotspots after massive disturbances like the 2016 Kaikōura Earthquake and we need to make the most of this opportunity. The multi-faceted experiments we are doing on this voyage will provide information relevant to many of the worlds continental margins. For New Zealand, this is a first: we have never collected AUV data or deployed sediment traps in our canyons. We hope this is just the start of a new era of high resolution canyon observations

Voyage leader Joshu Mountjoy updates us on how the voyage is going so far.
Rob Christie  - Manager of NIWA's marine resources

Rob Christie is manager for NIWA's marine resources. A Chartered Water and Environmental Manager and Chartered Scientist with over 26 years international experience, he has worked in environmental consultancy and science sectors in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. Rob joined NIWA in 2013 and is responsible for NIWA's marine assets, maritime commercial work and helping coordinate the application of marine science. Based in our Wellington office, Rob is NIWA's person to contact for strategic development, marine infrastructure, vessel enquires and scheduling.

In early 2019, the extension of the existing European Eurofleets vessel and equipment sharing initiative, Eurofleets +, included a New Zealand vessel for the first time: NIWA’s RV Tangaroa. Eurofleets+ aims at providing, integrating and improving access to key research vessels and associated major equipment. It includes innovative initiatives to ensure a more efficient and coordinated operation of fleets, to develop synergies with complementary observing systems and infrastructures and to set-up sustained integrated services to the user communities. A wide selection of new technologies are also available for use under this mechanism, including deep water autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) and largely portable remotely operated vehicles (ROV). 

For more information about RV Tangaroa and Eurofleets+, visit the Eurofleets+ vessels page

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All staff working on this subject

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Marine Ecologist - Quantitative Modeller
Regional Manager - Christchurch
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Fisheries Acoustics Scientist
Strategy Manager - Oceans
Marine Geology Technician
Marine Electronics Technician
Regional Manager - Wellington
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