A new project that will allow the public to use their computers to listen to the sounds of the Shannon estuary has gone live.
The work involves monitoring ocean noise from a hydrophone installed in the estuary off the jetty at Tarbert power station in Co Kerry.
The scheme, which is unique to Ireland, is funded by the Environmental Protection Agency and is being run as part of a Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology project.
The sounds of the estuary recorded by the hydrophone are streamed online for everyone to hear.
They include the noise of ships and ferries transiting the waterway, as well as the whistles and clicks of bottlenose dolphins. Listening to the Deep Ocean (Lido) is an international project that aims to monitor ocean noise throughout the world’s oceans.
The initiative is a collaboration between Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, Clare-based Shannon Dolphin and Wildlife Foundation and the Laboratory of Applied Bioacoustics of the Technical University of Catalonia, which established the Lido system.
Dr Joanne O’Brien, principal investigator of the GMIT ocean noise project said: “The ability to listen live to the underwater environment in the Shannon estuary contributes to a worldwide network operated by the University of Catalonia.”