SeaSound Hydrophone and Webcam
The SeaSound Hydrophone streams live on our partner SMRU's page. If the main player does not work on your device, there are additional options in the top right corner above the player. Select the one that will be recognized by your device, then download to your playlist to play live.
The Webcam streams live on The Whale Museum's YouTube Channel. The above link takes you to YouTube where you can select the Live Stream or watch recorded video of orcas as seen from Lime Kiln Point State Park.
The Whale Museum and SMRU Consulting operate and maintain the hydrophone at Lime Kiln Point State Park which runs out of the lighthouse. The hydrophone streams live on the internet 24/7 (tides and technology willing), so you can listen from your own device, anywhere in the world! If you hear something you want us to preserve, please send an email to info@whalemuseum.org or post on our FaceBook page. Thanks!
Special Recordings:
NOAA Fisheries have collected the sound of orca crunching on fish bones. By using digital acoustic recording tags (DTAGs) to examine sound exposure, sound use and behavior of Southern Resident killer whales (SRKWs) in core summer habitat. Listen to crunches here, the sounds are subtle please use headphones if possible. More information about this study can be found here.
On Sunday, July 29, 2018, SMRU Consulting and The Whale Museum recorded Tahlequah (J-35), members of the J16s with L-87 and other J Pod members communicating with one another and echolocating. Here's a minute of what we heard - amazing: click to listen.
With so much focus on the J16s and J17s right now, we would like to share a few clips of their calls which were recorded by Jeanne Hyde from the Lime Kiln Hydrophone:
J16s - a few calls and then echolocation calls recorded on July 24, 2018
J16s - echolocation clicks on July 21, 2018
J17s - recording on July 29, 2018
Click the red dot on San Juan Island on the map above to listen to the Lime Kiln hydrophone.
We're partners in the Salish Sea Hydrophone Network!
The Salish Sea Hydrophone Network consists of a series of underwater microphones (hydrophones) throughout the Salish Sea, and is an experimentation in sharing real-time underwater sounds. Together with our partners, the goal of this network is to detect Orca sounds and measure ambient noise levels present in the habitat of the endangered Southern Resident orcas. Over the years, a growing coalition of scientists, educators and citizens has been working together to expand this network of hydrophones.
Through our SeaSound Remote Sensing Network program, we maintain a hydrophone array just off Lime Kiln Point State Park, on the West side of San Juan Island, and we hope to add more locations in the future. Our researchers work from the research station housed in the Lime Kiln lighthouse for monitoring and recording.
You can listen to live and recorded sounds from each location in the Salish Sea Hydrophone Network, including Lime Kiln Point, Neah Bay, Orcasound, Port Townsend and Seattle. If you don't hear anything interesting live, you can listen to archived sounds from each location.
Click here to watch the Lime Kiln hydrophone installation!
Establishing and maintaining a hydrophone array is expensive. Did you know that it costs over $400 each time we send divers down to do maintenance on our hydrophones?
Funding for the SeaSound Remote Sensing Network comes out of The Whale Museum's general operating budget, partnership with the ECHO Project and SMRU Consulting, periodic contract funding through NOAA, and donations from supporters. You can help support our efforts by making a donation, adopting an orca or becoming a museum member.
The SeaSound Remote Sensing Network, Salish Sea Hydrophone Network and audio streaming are a collaborative project with our partners:
Help notify researchers when orcas are in the Salish Sea! If you hear killer whales, please email detection@orcasound.net or log your observations in a collaborative Google spreadsheet. You can use the Salish Sea sound tutor to learn how to tell which pod is present based on the calls they most often use.
All works associated with the Lime Kiln hydrophone and/or hosted by seasound.org are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. These works include, but are not limited to: audio, images, video, data, analytical methods and models, data products, educational or outreach resources, exhibit design/build information and graphics, and technical specifications. With proper citation*, non-commercial usage of this material is permitted without prior written agreement with The Whale Museum and SMRU Consulting. However, the usage of this material in any commercial and research purpose is prohibited without prior agreement with the aforementioned organizations. To inquire about data usage or questions, email Acoustics Research.
*"All recordings and other data from the Lime Kiln hydrophone are owned and maintained by The Whale Museum and SMRU Consulting"
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Lime Kiln Point State Park is located on the west side of San Juan Island. The historic lighthouse is the base of some of The Whale Museum's research, including SeaSound (hydrophone), Sightings & Observation (Dr. Bob Otis, Jeanne Hyde and the webcam) as well as an awesome place to learn more about the Southern Resident orcas and the Salish Sea ecosystem.
The bathymetry is very dramatic in this area. Within 25 feet of the shoreline, the ocean floor drops to 960 feet deep! This allows the whales to swim very close to shore while they forage, socialize or just pass by. Because they do this so often, this park is nicknamed Whale Watch Park. Our webcam located on the lighthouse and available to watch live. |
Listen to the first recording of Humpback whales in Haro Strait. Recorded by Jeanne Hyde from the OrcaSound hydrophone on October 13, 2013.