February 4, 2022

Quiet Sound

Quiet Sound, a collaborative program working to reduce noise and physical impacts to endangered Southern Resident killer whales from large commercial vessels, announced the official launch of its initiatives and monitoring programs. Quiet Sound is the primary, collaborative initiative in Washington state addressing the impacts of noise on local whale populations. Their focus is on giving commercial mariners and large vessels the resources to join together in a voluntary effort to slow down, reducing underwater noise pollution and protecting the 73 Southern Resident killer whales in the Salish Sea. Quiet Sound is working in partnership with the tribal governments, state and federal agencies, scientific researchers, nonprofits and other maritime industry organizations to initiate an advanced whale alert system and vessel slow down initiative. Large vessels and vessel operations centers are asked to use the Whale Report Alert System, available as a mobile app or in a browser, providing real-time, geographically specific alerts of whale sightings. Immediate next steps for Quiet Sound include partnering with Oceans Initiative to engage Puget Sound boaters in underwater noise measurements and advising the Port of Seattle on a research initiative on what is needed to further develop Washington's underwater noise sensing network. Quiet Sound will also partner with the U.S. Navy's Northwest Tech Bridge on a technology challenge to support innovators in developing new onboard whale sensing capabilities.