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Welcome to the orcanode wiki, a subset of the top-level Orcasound organizational wiki.

Here we provide some bioacoustic context for the open source code in this repository built by the Orcasound community, as well as technical details to support the use of our free code for passive acoustic monitoring and the deployment of low-cost hydrophones to accelerate marine bioacoustics, science, and conservation. For details about the ongoing development of the code and to contribute, please see the README and Issues.

Motivation for orcanode

The orcanode code was first written in 2018 to generate a live audio stream for monitoring the critical habitat of the Southern Resident Killer Whales (SRKWs) within the inland waters of Washington (USA) at three locations. Short-term goals for this repo include: using free open source tools like ffmpeg as much as possible; providing data in formats like HLS and DASH that optimize playback on any combination of operating system, device, and browser in the Orcasound web app (production site | orcasite source code); and, utilizing low-cost cloud-based storage and operations to make reuse of our free open source code more economical.

A longer-term goal is to increase our collective listening capabilities throughout the range of the SRKWs, from Monterey Bay in California (USA) to Haida Gwaii in British Columbia (Canada) at the border with Southeast Alaska. Luckily, there is a growing suite of hydrophones (underwater microphones) deployed in this part of the northeast Pacific ocean that are capable of streaming data live or in near real time. We maintain a shared Google map of live hydrophones in the NE Pacific, especially across the SRKW range, as well as links to potential live or near real time data sources.

USA data sources

• SRKW monitoring by Orcasound (inland WA)
  • Google map of extant/planned Orcasound hydrophone network nodes; 2022 Q4 screenshot:

• Three 2023 production nodes:

  • Orcasound Lab (Haro Strait), Port Townsend, Bush Point (Whidbey Island), Sunset Bay (between Edmonds and Mukilteo, WA)
  • Latitudes and longitudes of current nodes

• Three 2023 development nodes: Point Robinson (Vashon Island), north San Juan Channel, and the MaST Center (Redondo Beach)

• SRKW monitoring (outer coast, US)

  • Oregon coast OOI/RSN nodes

    • Eventually we should build a separate page for all OOI/RSN hydrophones of interest, but for now:

    • Karan's 2022 GSoC project for Orcasound: increase access to OOI hydrophones

    • OOI Regional Cabled Array map:

• California coast
  • MARS mooring in Monterey Bay, CA (John Ryan)
    • Live audio: MBARI Soundscape Listening Room (mp3 stream via ??)
    • Archived audio: AWS Open Data Registry (AWS sponsored open data registry; near real time, latency of ~1 day)
    • Orcasound Trello card with background, links

Canadian data sources

In addition to distilled links and resources below, see this Orcasound blog post with shortcuts to 24/7 cabled hydrophone deployments in BC, Canada.

• SRKW monitoring (inland waters and outer coast, BC)
  • BC Hydrophone Network with archived data access/visualization via whalesound.ca web site and its interactive map (launched fall, 2023)
    • CetaceaLab (Northern BC)
    • Bella Bella (Central BC)
    • OrcaLab (Johnstone Strait, north end of Vancouver Island)
      • Live listening community room
      • Raw audio feed (RealPlayer-based?)
    • SIMRES (2 hydrophones in Boundary Pass, deployed from east Saturna Island)
      • MP3 live stream (SIMRES web site embed | raw stream URL)
      • Trello card documenting system
  • First Nations
    • Sciences, Leadership Council
  • Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) nodes (Strait of Georgia and off SW coast of Vancouver Island)
    • As of 2023: 3-hour delay for public per DFO request
    • ONC data portal (version 3.0 in 2022)
    • Ocean Networks Canada API
    • ONC hydrophone data search UI
  • DFO deployments?
    • John Ford's place north of Nanaimo?
    • Other 24/7 locations managed by James Pilkington?
  • JASCO and SMRU deployments, e.g. Underwater Listening Stations?

Software and open data

Live streaming

• Low-latency "live" streaming from Orcasound hydrophones is the main purpose of the orcanode repository. The orcanode README has info about our architecture, adding a node, and running tests locally and in the dev.orcasound.net subdomain; the orcanode wiki has background info and trouble-shooting guidance.
• Playback of the live streams happens through Orcasound's live-listening web app. The code for the web app can be found in the orcasite repo where you'll also find documentation in the README and wiki.

Playback of archived data

• orca-hls-utils -- package for streaming live Orcasound data or archived HLS segments from a past datetime range

Open access data

• AWS Open Data Registry
• Data access to live-streaming S3 bucket via Quilt.com
• Data access via AWS CLI

Hardware and field deployment

At Orcasound we strive to be open about our hardware innovations, as well as software ones. So, in this section, you can find practical information about how to add different kinds of nodes to marine bioacoustic networks.

Hydrophones and data acquisition hardware

• Current open hardware/software solution
• Hydrophone system specs: Sources and costs of hydrophones, cables, and data acquisition systems, as well as calibration curves for hydrophones we know and/or love...
• 2018 Orcasound hardware solution (blog post describing our hardware solution that's worked for >5 years)
• 2022 low-cost hydrophone project: insights from an innovation project funded through Experiment.com

CRT SQ26-08 power via the Pisound ADC

• Pisound 6V bias power jumpers
• Joe Olson adds resistors to reduce voltage to <~5.0V for the SQ26-08

Hydrophone deployment guides, tips, and tricks

Orcasound deployment strategies

Dock-of-convenience techniques

Deployments that leverage existing structures

Examples: Port Townsend, Seattle Aquarium, Neah Bay, Bush Point, MaST Center, Sunset Bay

Crack-of-convenience techniques

Deployment through high-energy rocky intertidal environments

Based on ~20 years experience from Val Veirs at Orcasound Lab (and previous lessons taught at Lime Kiln by Professor Neptune during winter quarter...

Examples: Orcasound Lab, Lime Kiln, North San Juan Channel

Trenching techniques

Deployment through sandy/gravel intertidal environments

Experimental techniques

A catalog of other deployment strategies and ideas

1. Clothesline technique
2. Buoyed solutions (link to Bainbridge project?)

Tips & tricks

• Paul Spong's garden hose trick
  • Ask Paul/Dave for a photo from Johnstone Strait (including any connection to the hydrophone and deployment methods sub- and inter-tidal)
  • Synopsis of 1st experiment at Orcasound Lab
  • Synopsis of 1st experiment at Sunset Bay
• Sea to Shore philosophy and approach: invest in cable that will last indefinitely! (e.g. ~$4k of cable per node, proven to last 5-10y in deep ocean)
• DFO tactic (described by James Pilkington): (HTI?) cable within braided hose, within ~0.5cm thick spiral chafe guard (e.g. polyethelene NEXwrap), within leaded line to create
• Panty hose trick for flow noise reduction
  • Orcasound coat-hanger technique
  • CRT 3D-printed cage
• Lon's saltwater-ground method (to reduce 60Hz hum from nearby AC power systems)