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ObjectivesAlthough the media can influence public perceptions and utilisation of healthcare, journalists generally receive no routine training in interpreting and reporting on medical research. Given growing evidence about the problems of medical overuse, the need for quality media reporting has become a greater priority. This study aimed to codesign and assess the feasibility of a multicomponent training intervention for journalists in Australia.DesignA small pragmatic feasibility study using a pre- and postdesign.Setting90 min online workshop.ParticipantsEight journalists currently working in Australia, recruited through the study’s journalist advisor and existing contacts of the researchers.InterventionThe training intervention covered a range of topics, including study designs, conflicts of interest, misleading medical statistics, population screening and overdiagnosis. The intervention also provided tools to help journalists with reporting, including a Tip Sheet and list of expert contacts in health and medicine. Preworkshop and postworkshop questionnaires were administered via Qualtrics.MeasuresAcceptability and feasibility of the intervention, and journalists’ knowledge of overdiagnosis and common issues with health stories. Quantitative results were analysed descriptively using SPSS. Qualitative data were thematically analysed.ResultsAll participants completed preworkshop and postworkshop questionnaires, and 6 completed the 6-week follow-up (75% retention). Feasibility findings suggest the intervention is acceptable and relevant to journalists, with participants indicating the workshop increased confidence with reporting on medical research. We observed increases in knowledge preworkshop to postworkshop for all knowledge measures on overdiagnosis and common issues with media coverage of medicine. Analysis of free-text responses identified several areas for improvement, such as including more examples to aid understanding of the counterintuitive topic of overdiagnosis and more time for discussion.ConclusionsPiloting suggested the multicomponent training intervention is acceptable to journalists and provided important feedback and insights to inform a future trial of the intervention’s impact on media coverage of medicine.

ObjectivePromotional media coverage of early detection tests is an important driver of overdiagnosis. Following research evidence that global media coverage presents the benefits of testing healthy people far more frequently than harms, and gives little coverage to overdiagnosis, we sought to examine journalists’ views on media reporting of tests, overdiagnosis, and strategies to improve critical reporting on tests.DesignQualitative study using semistructured telephone interviews. Interviews were conducted between February and March 2020 and were audiorecorded and transcribed verbatim. Framework thematic analysis was used to analyse the data.Participants and settingTwenty-two journalists (mainly specialising in health reporting, average 14.5 years’ experience) based in Australia.ResultsThis sample of journalists acknowledged the potential harms of medical tests but felt that knowledge of harms was low among journalists and the public at large. Most were aware of the term overdiagnosis, but commonly felt that it is challenging to both understand and communicate in light of strong beliefs in the benefits of early detection. Journalists felt that newsworthiness in the form of major public health impact was the key ingredient for stories about medical tests. The journalists acknowledged that factors, like the press release and ‘click bait culture’ in particular, can influence the framing of coverage about tests. Lack of knowledge and training, as well as time pressures, were perceived to be the main barriers to critical reporting on tests. Journalists felt that training and better access to information about potential harms would enable more critical reporting.ConclusionsEffectively communicating overdiagnosis is a challenge in light of common beliefs about the benefits of testing and the culture of current journalism practices. Providing journalists with training, support and better access to information about potential harms of tests could aid critical reporting of tests.

Issue addressed To investigate whether Australians have experienced any positive effects during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Methods National online longitudinal survey. As part of a June 2020 survey, participants (n = 1370) were asked ‘In your life, have you experienced any positive effects from the COVID‐19 pandemic’ (yes/no) and also completed the World Health Organisation‐Five well‐being index. Differences were explored by demographic variables. Free‐text responses were thematically coded. Results Nine hundred sixty participants (70%) reported experiencing at least one positive effect during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Living with others (P = .045) and employment situation (P

BackgroundIn Australia in March 2020 a national public health directive required that non-essential workers stay at home, except for essential activities. These restrictions began easing in May 2020 as community transmission slowed.PurposeThis study investigated changes in COVID-19 prevention behaviours from April-July 2020, and psychosocial predictors of these behaviours.Methods1,843 participants in Australia completed a national COVID-19 survey in April, with monthly follow-up over four months. Principal components analysis (PCA) combined self-reported adherence across seven prevention behaviours. Multivariable regression models explored baseline (April) correlates of behaviour in June (a period of low community transmission) and July (a period of increasing community transmission).ResultsOn average, participants agreed with statements of adherence for all behaviours (means all above 4 out of 7). PCA identified two behaviour types: ‘distancing’ (e.g. staying 1.5m away) and ‘hygiene’ (e.g. washing hands), explaining 28.3% and 24.2% of variance, respectively. Distancing declined each month (p’sConclusionsHigh adherence to COVID-19 prevention behaviours were reported; however, distancing behaviours tended to decrease over time. Belief in social responsibility may be an important aspect to consider in encouraging distancing behaviours. Different policy approaches may be needed for different behavioural categories.

BackgroundIn Australia in March 2020 a national public health directive required that non-essential workers stay at home, except for essential activities. These restrictions began easing in May 2020 as community transmission slowed.ObjectivesThis study investigated changes in COVID prevention behaviours from April-July 2020, and psychosocial predictors of these behaviours.MethodsAn Australia-wide (national) survey was conducted in April, with monthly follow-up over four months. Participants who were adults (18+ years), currently residing in Australia and who could read and understand English were eligible. Recruitment was via online social media. Analysis sample included those who provided responses to the baseline survey (April) and at least one subsequent follow-up survey (N = 1834 out of a possible 3216 who completed the April survey). 71.7% of the sample was female (n = 1,322). Principal components analysis (PCA) combined self-reported adherence across seven prevention behaviours. PCA identified two behaviour types: ‘distancing’ (e.g. staying 1.5m away) and ‘hygiene’ (e.g. washing hands), explaining 28.3% and 24.2% of variance, respectively. Distancing and hygiene behaviours were analysed individually using multivariable regression models.ResultsOn average, participants agreed with statements of adherence for all behaviours (means all above 4 out of 7). Distancing behaviours declined each month (p’s < .001), whereas hygiene behaviours remained relatively stable. For distancing, stronger perceptions of societal risk, self-efficacy to maintain distancing, and greater perceived social obligation at baseline were associated with adherence in June and July (p’sConclusionHigh adherence to COVID prevention behaviours were reported in this social media sample; however, distancing behaviours tended to decrease over time. Belief in social responsibility may be an important aspect to consider in encouraging distancing behaviours. These findings have implications for managing a shift from government-imposed restrictions to individual responsibility.

ObjectiveTo investigate whether Australians have experienced any positive effects during the COVID-19 pandemic, despite the disruption to society and daily life.MethodsNational online longitudinal survey. As part of a June 2020 survey, participants (n=1370) were asked ‘In your life, have you experienced any positive effects from the COVID-19 pandemic’ (yes/no), with a free-text explanation if yes, and also completed the WHO-Five well-being index. Differences were explored by demographic variables. Free-text responses were thematically coded.Results960 participants (70%) reported experiencing at least one positive effect during the COVID-19 pandemic. Living with others (p=.045) and employment situation (pConclusionA large proportion of surveyed Australians reported positive effects resulting from changes to daily life due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia. Enhancing these aspects may build community resilience to cope with future pandemic responses. The needs of people living alone, and of those having to work outside the home or who are unemployed, should be considered by health policy makers and employers in future pandemic preparedness efforts, as these groups were least likely to report positive experiences and may be more vulnerable.

Objectives: To explore the variation in understanding of, attitudes towards, and uptake of, health advice on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) during the 2020 pandemic stage 3 restrictions (‘lockdown’) by health literacy in the Australian population. Study design: National cross-sectional community survey. Setting: Australian general public. Participants: Adults aged over 18 years (N = 4362). Main outcome measures: Knowledge, attitudes and behaviours related to COVID-19; health literacy and sociodemographic factors. Results: People with inadequate health literacy had poorer understanding of COVID-19 symptoms (49% vs 68%; p < 0.001), were less able to identify behaviours to prevent infection (59% vs 72%; p < 0.001), and experienced more difficulty finding information and understanding government messaging about COVID-19 than people with adequate health literacy. People with inadequate health literacy were less likely to rate social distancing as important (6.1 vs 6.5; p < 0.001) and reported more difficulty with remembering and accessing medicines since lockdown (3.6 vs 2.7; p < 0.001). People with lower health literacy were also more likely to endorse misinformed beliefs about COVID-19 and vaccinations (in general) than those with adequate health literacy. The same pattern of results was observed among people who primarily speak a language other than English at home. Conclusion: Our findings show that there are important disparities in COVID-19–related knowledge, attitudes and behaviours according to people’s health literacy and language. These have the potential to undermine efforts to reduce viral transmission and may lead to social inequalities in health outcomes in Australia. People with the greatest burden of chronic disease are most disadvantaged, and are also most likely to experience severe disease and die from COVID-19. Addressing the health literacy, language and cultural needs of the community in public health messaging about COVID-19 must now be a priority in Australia.

Background In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth has rapidly been adopted to deliver health care services around the world. To date, studies have not compared people’s experiences with telehealth services during the pandemic in Australia to their experiences with traditional in-person visits. Objective This study aimed to compare participants’ perceptions of telehealth consults to their perceptions of traditional in-person visits and investigate whether people believe that telehealth services would be useful after the pandemic. Methods A national, cross-sectional, community survey was conducted between June 5 and June 12, 2020 in Australia. In total, 1369 participants who were aged ≥18 years and lived in Australia were recruited via targeted advertisements on social media (ie, Facebook and Instagram). Participants responded to survey questions about their telehealth experience, which included a free-text response option. A generalized linear model was used to estimate the adjusted relative risks of having a poorer telehealth experience than a traditional in-person visit experience. Content analysis was performed to determine the reasons why telehealth experiences were worse than traditional in-person visit experiences. Results Of the 596 telehealth users, the majority of respondents (n=369, 61.9%) stated that their telehealth experience was “just as good as” or “better than” their traditional in-person medical appointment experience. On average, respondents perceived that telehealth would be moderately useful to very useful for medical appointments after the COVID-19 pandemic ends (mean 3.67, SD 1.1). Being male (P=.007), having a history of both depression and anxiety (P=.016), and lower patient activation scores (ie, individuals’ willingness to take on the role of managing their health/health care) (P=.036) were significantly associated with a poor telehealth experience. In total, 6 overarching themes were identified from free-text responses for why participants’ telehealth experiences were poorer than their traditional in-person medical appointment experiences, as follows: communication is not as effective, limitations with technology, issues with obtaining prescriptions and pathology results, reduced confidence in their doctor, additional burden for complex care, and inability to be physically examined. Conclusions Based on our sample’s responses, telehealth appointment experiences were comparable to traditional in-person medical appointment experiences. Telehealth may be worthwhile as a mode of health care delivery while the pandemic continues, and it may continue to be worthwhile after the pandemic.

BackgroundThe current suppression strategy for COVID-19 in Australia is dependent on people getting tested and self-isolating while they have COVID-19 symptoms. However, there is very little research on the behaviours and behavioural barriers involved in getting tested, both in Australia and worldwide, despite there being some evidence that these barriers do exist.MethodsThe Sydney Health Literacy Lab (SHeLL) has been conducting a national longitudinal survey in Australia since April 2020. A list of testing barriers was included in Wave 3 in June 2020 (n=1369), along with intentions to test and self-isolate if symptomatic. Open responses were also collected. The test barriers identified were categorised using the COM-B framework.ResultsOnly 49% of people strongly agreed they would get tested if they had COVID-19 symptoms, but most people agreed to some extent that they would get tested (96%). The most common barriers selected from the list provided were that testing is painful (11%), not knowing how to get tested (7%), and worry about getting infected at the testing centre (5%). Many participants (10%) indicated other reasons, and open responses included many additional barriers to testing than those provided in the initial list. These covered all components of the COM-B model.ConclusionWe identified a wide range of barriers using both quantitative and qualitative methods, which need to be addressed in order to increase COVID-19 testing behaviour.

BACKGROUND In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth has rapidly been adopted to deliver health care services around the world. To date, studies have not compared people’s experiences with telehealth services during the pandemic in Australia to their experiences with traditional in-person visits. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to compare participants’ perceptions of telehealth consults to their perceptions of traditional in-person visits and investigate whether people believe that telehealth services would be useful after the pandemic. METHODS A national, cross-sectional, community survey was conducted between June 5 and June 12, 2020 in Australia. In total, 1369 participants who were aged ≥18 years and lived in Australia were recruited via targeted advertisements on social media (ie, Facebook and Instagram). Participants responded to survey questions about their telehealth experience, which included a free-text response option. A generalized linear model was used to estimate the adjusted relative risks of having a poorer telehealth experience than a traditional in-person visit experience. Content analysis was performed to determine the reasons why telehealth experiences were worse than traditional in-person visit experiences. RESULTS Of the 596 telehealth users, the majority of respondents (n=369, 61.9%) stated that their telehealth experience was “just as good as” or “better than” their traditional in-person medical appointment experience. On average, respondents perceived that telehealth would be moderately useful to very useful for medical appointments after the COVID-19 pandemic ends (mean 3.67, SD 1.1). Being male (P=.007), having a history of both depression and anxiety (P=.016), and lower patient activation scores (ie, individuals’ willingness to take on the role of managing their health/health care) (P=.036) were significantly associated with a poor telehealth experience. In total, 6 overarching themes were identified from free-text responses for why participants’ telehealth experiences were poorer than their traditional in-person medical appointment experiences, as follows: communication is not as effective, limitations with technology, issues with obtaining prescriptions and pathology results, reduced confidence in their doctor, additional burden for complex care, and inability to be physically examined. CONCLUSIONS Based on our sample’s responses, telehealth appointment experiences were comparable to traditional in-person medical appointment experiences. Telehealth may be worthwhile as a mode of health care delivery while the pandemic continues, and it may continue to be worthwhile after the pandemic.

ObjectivesTo determine how participants perceived telehealth consults in comparison to traditional in-person visits, and to investigate whether people believe that telehealth services would be useful beyond the pandemic.DesignA national cross-sectional community survey.ParticipantsAustralian adults aged 18 years and over (n=1369).Main outcome measuresTelehealth experiences.ResultsOf the 596 telehealth users, the majority of respondents (62%) rated their telehealth experience as “just as good” or “better” than a traditional in-person medical appointment. On average, respondents perceived that telehealth would be moderately to very useful for medical appointments after the COVID-19 pandemic is over (M=3.67 out of 5, SD=1.1). Being male (p=0.007), having a history of both depression and anxiety (p=0.037), or lower patient activation (individuals’ willingness to take on the role of managing their health/healthcare) (p=0.037) were associated with a poorer telehealth experience. Six overarching themes were identified from free-text responses of why telehealth experience was poorer than a traditional in-person medical appointment: communication is not as effective; limitations with technology; issues with obtaining prescriptions and pathology; reduced confidence in doctor; additional burden for complex care; and inability to be physically examined.ConclusionsTelehealth appointments were reported to be comparable to traditional in-person medical appointments by most of our sample. Telehealth should continue to be offered as a mode of healthcare delivery while the pandemic continues and may be worthwhile beyond the pandemic.The knownThe COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an increase in telehealth services.The newThe majority of telehealth users (62%) perceived their experience to be just as good or better than traditional in-person medical care; and that telehealth would be at least somewhat useful beyond the pandemic.Having a history of both depression and anxiety was associated with a poorer telehealth experience and in-person visits were frequently preferred over telehealth visits for mental health appointments.The implicationTelehealth should continue to be offered while the COVID-19 pandemic continues and may be worthwhile beyond the pandemic, however, telehealth may be less effective for mental health services.

BACKGROUND Misinformation about COVID-19 is common and has been spreading rapidly across the globe through social media platforms and other information systems. Understanding what the public knows about COVID-19 and identifying beliefs based on misinformation can help shape effective public health communications to ensure efforts to reduce viral transmission are not undermined. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to investigate the prevalence and factors associated with COVID-19 misinformation in Australia and their changes over time. METHODS This prospective, longitudinal national survey was completed by adults (18 years and above) across April (n=4362), May (n=1882), and June (n=1369) 2020. RESULTS Stronger agreement with misinformation was associated with younger age, male gender, lower education level, and language other than English spoken at home (PP CONCLUSIONS The findings of this study highlight important gaps in communication effectiveness, which must be addressed to ensure effective COVID-19 prevention.

ObjectivesTo investigate prevalence of beliefs in COVID-19 misinformation and examine whether demographic, psychosocial and cognitive factors are associated with these beliefs, and how they change over time.Study designProspective national longitudinal community online survey.SettingAustralian general public.ParticipantsAdults aged over 18 years (n=4362 baseline/Wave 1; n=1882 Wave 2; n=1369 Wave 3).Main outcome measureCOVID-19 misinformation beliefs.ResultsStronger agreement with misinformation beliefs was significantly associated with younger age, male gender, lower education, and primarily speaking a language other than English at home (all pConclusionThese findings highlight important gaps in communication effectiveness. Stronger endorsement of misinformation was associated with male gender, younger age, lower education and language other than English spoken at home. Misinformation can undermine public health efforts. Public health authorities must urgently target groups identified in this study when countering misinformation and seek ways to enhance public trust of experts, governments, and institutions.

ObjectivesTo explore the variation in understanding, attitudes and uptake of COVID-19 health advice during the 2020 pandemic lockdown by health literacy.Study designNational cross sectional community survey.SettingAustralian general public.ParticipantsAdults aged over 18 years (n = 4362).Main outcome measuresKnowledge, attitudes and behaviours related to COVID-19; health literacy and socio-demographic factors.ResultsPeople with inadequate health literacy had poorer understanding of COVID-19 symptoms (49% vs 68%; pConclusionOur findings show important disparities by health literacy and language in COVID-19 related knowledge, attitudes and behaviours that have the potential to undermine efforts to reduce viral transmission and may lead to social inequalities in health outcomes in Australia. Those with the greatest burden of chronic disease are most disadvantaged, and most likely to experience severe disease and die from COVID-19. Addressing the health literacy needs of the community in public health messaging about COVID-19 must now be a priority in Australia.

Background Misinformation about COVID-19 is common and has been spreading rapidly across the globe through social media platforms and other information systems. Understanding what the public knows about COVID-19 and identifying beliefs based on misinformation can help shape effective public health communications to ensure efforts to reduce viral transmission are not undermined. Objective This study aimed to investigate the prevalence and factors associated with COVID-19 misinformation in Australia and their changes over time. Methods This prospective, longitudinal national survey was completed by adults (18 years and above) across April (n=4362), May (n=1882), and June (n=1369) 2020. Results Stronger agreement with misinformation was associated with younger age, male gender, lower education level, and language other than English spoken at home (P Conclusions The findings of this study highlight important gaps in communication effectiveness, which must be addressed to ensure effective COVID-19 prevention.

During February and March, 2018, a lone sperm whale known as Yukusam was recorded first by Orcalab in Johnstone Strait and subsequently on multiple hydrophones within the Salish Sea [1]. We learn and denoise these multichannel clicks trains with AutoEncoders Convolutional Neural Net (CNN). Then, we build a map of the echolocations to elucidate variations in the acoustic behavior of this unique animal over time, in different environments and distinct levels of boat noise. If CNN approximates an optimal kernel decomposition, it requires large amounts of data. Via spline functionals we offer analytics kernels with learnable coefficients do reduce it. We [1-3] identify the analytical mother wavelet to represent the input signal to directly learn the wavelet support from scratch by gradient descend on the parameters of cubic splines [2]. Supplemental material http://sabiod.org/yukusam [1] Balestriero, Roger, Glotin, Baraniuk, Semi-Supervised Learning via New Deep Network Inversion, arXiv preprint arXiv:1711.04313, 2017 [2] Balestriero, Cosentino, Glotin, Baraniuk, WaveletNet : Spline Filters for End-to-End Deep Learning, Int. Conf. on MachineLearning, ICML, Stockholm, http://sabiod.org/bib, 2018 [3] Spong P., Symonds H., et al., Joint Observatories Following a Single male Cachalot during 12 weeks—The Yukusam story, ASA 2018.

From 11 February to 31 March 2018, a lone male sperm whale visited coastal waters from the northeast to southern ends of Vancouver Island. This whale, named "Yukusam" after the Namgis First Nation word for Hanson Island, near where the whale was first observed and recorded, is the first sperm whale recorded acoustically in the area since 1984 and is the only sperm whale ever observed in coastal waters between Vancouver Island and continental North America. The Yukusam tracking story is a showcase for the potential of acoustic observatory collaborations. Tracking a single animal over such time and distance is remarkable. It obviously helped that Yukusam was the only sperm whale in the area, but still, the experience hints at the potential for using diverse independent observatories collaboratively. We then aim to see all the observatories running automated detection classification and location software and having all the data tied in to a public database for a total of almost 500 Gb of recordings, with labels. Supplemental material @ http://sabiod.org/yukusam

The Ocean Networks Canada (OCN) deployment of a small set of acoustic recorders (4) in and around the Juan de Fuca plate provides the opportunity to observe the seasonal and long-term trends in the northeast Pacific ocean soundscape. With one receiver near the opening of the Straits of Juan De Fuca, two on the continental slope and one in deep water, we have the opportunity to evaluate the effects of local environment on the ambient sound. Wind waves and surface ships drive the low frequency ambient sound fields in most regions. These long-term recordings provide the opportunity to perform passive acoustic tomography, where the cross-correlation of the acoustic field over long time periods can provide estimates of the channel impulse response between the two hydrophones. This technique has been demonstrated experimentally at shorter ranges. The expected oceanographic observed signal from a “tomography experiment” is estimated using the ECCO4 model and the parabolic equation.

Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) operates ocean observatories on all three of Canada's coasts. The instruments produce 300 gigabytes of data per day with over 600 terabytes archived so far. The majority of this data is acoustic, both passive (335 TB) and active (20 TB). This demonstrates the unprecedented capability of cabled observatories to provide unlimited power and data for high bandwidth, continuous data acquisition. Handling this data is a challenge. Metadata, calibration, quality control, and access must be considered. The volume of data is too great for most users to handle. Even if they could store and process it, data transfer to users' computers is a limiting, and perhaps unnecessary step. To address these challenges, ONC has developed a data portal, known as Oceans 2.0, that includes on-demand user-configurable online previewing and processing and a computing “sandbox” where users can upload their own code to process the data. The data portal is now fully accessible by web services. The sandbox is a contained, secure environment with direct access to the data. This paper will present our experience and best practices, including use cases, from acquisition to adding value to the data with these new computing methods.Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) operates ocean observatories on all three of Canada's coasts. The instruments produce 300 gigabytes of data per day with over 600 terabytes archived so far. The majority of this data is acoustic, both passive (335 TB) and active (20 TB). This demonstrates the unprecedented capability of cabled observatories to provide unlimited power and data for high bandwidth, continuous data acquisition. Handling this data is a challenge. Metadata, calibration, quality control, and access must be considered. The volume of data is too great for most users to handle. Even if they could store and process it, data transfer to users' computers is a limiting, and perhaps unnecessary step. To address these challenges, ONC has developed a data portal, known as Oceans 2.0, that includes on-demand user-configurable online previewing and processing and a computing “sandbox” where users can upload their own code to process the data. The data portal is now fully accessible by web services. The sandbox is...

There are governmental (DFO, DND, NOAA, USN), commercial (typically proprietary), and non-governmental organization (NGO) passive acoustic ocean observing systems installed on the North East Pacific Coast. The NGO passive acoustic datasets span many years, four decades for OrcaLab. This presentation provides an overview of the data collected at various NGO acoustic observatories on the North East Pacific Coast. The dataset time windows, sampling rates, formats, and ancillary data are given for each NGO. Data availability, searchability, data use restrictions, and contact information are given to allow acoustic researchers to access this treasure of acoustic observatory data. NGO’s include Fin Island Marine Institute, CetaceaLab, Pacific Wild, OrcaLab, Ocean Networks Canada, Saturna Island Marine Research and Education Society, Orcasound, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.There are governmental (DFO, DND, NOAA, USN), commercial (typically proprietary), and non-governmental organization (NGO) passive acoustic ocean observing systems installed on the North East Pacific Coast. The NGO passive acoustic datasets span many years, four decades for OrcaLab. This presentation provides an overview of the data collected at various NGO acoustic observatories on the North East Pacific Coast. The dataset time windows, sampling rates, formats, and ancillary data are given for each NGO. Data availability, searchability, data use restrictions, and contact information are given to allow acoustic researchers to access this treasure of acoustic observatory data. NGO’s include Fin Island Marine Institute, CetaceaLab, Pacific Wild, OrcaLab, Ocean Networks Canada, Saturna Island Marine Research and Education Society, Orcasound, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.

This introductory talk will address why underwater acoustics are important, its uses, how sound propagates so far in the ocean, man-made sounds, including shipping noise, and the impact of noise in the ocean. A short overview of organizations working on the issue of underwater noise will be given including those around the Salish Sea where the conference is being held. The way sound is measured and analyzed will be shown with local examples of marine life, earthquake and anthropogenic noise. A short exercise to show the effects of acoustic masking will be given, followed by an explanation of echolocation use by the Southern Resident Killer Whales and the implications of acoustic masking on finding food for this local and endangered species.This introductory talk will address why underwater acoustics are important, its uses, how sound propagates so far in the ocean, man-made sounds, including shipping noise, and the impact of noise in the ocean. A short overview of organizations working on the issue of underwater noise will be given including those around the Salish Sea where the conference is being held. The way sound is measured and analyzed will be shown with local examples of marine life, earthquake and anthropogenic noise. A short exercise to show the effects of acoustic masking will be given, followed by an explanation of echolocation use by the Southern Resident Killer Whales and the implications of acoustic masking on finding food for this local and endangered species.

Operating autonomous underwater vehicles at high latitudes is a challenge because ice cover prevents the use of GPS or data communications. As a result, our scientific observations are biased towards late spring, summer, and early autumn when ships can navigate and autonomous platforms can safely surface. To address this problem, we studied the feasibility of a basin-scale multipurpose acoustic network called the “Baffin Bay Acoustic Navigation and Communication System” (BBANC). BBANC would deploy broadband low frequency sources and receivers, offering one-way communication, acoustic positioning, and acoustic thermometry services. Passive acoustic listening elements would support the study of marine mammal communication and ambient noise from ships, ocean-based resource exploitation, and ice dynamics, as well as gate acoustic source operation in the presence of marine mammals. We describe the challenges and design parameters for such a system, as well as define additional acoustic and remote sensing measurements required to complete a system design. Drawing from a large database of Baffin Bay hydrography, we present simulations of under-ice sound speed conditions, ice properties derived from satellite remote sensing and upward looking sonar data, and modelled acoustic propagation paths in an ice-covered Baffin Bay. We also assess the feasibility of non-coherent and coherent communication.