Mer calme Observing coastal marine environments using underwater acoustics

The MER CALME project is innovative: it aims to develop an observation methodology for coastal marine environments based on underwater acoustics. It measures the acoustic landscape, contributing to knowledge of the biological, geophysical, climatic and anthropic environments.

Observation through passive acoustics is a promising field but needs tools to be developed for processing sonar signals and translating these into a knowledge of the environment.

The MER CALME project will bring together a multidisciplinary team from information science, ecology and marine biology to develop an underwater acoustic observation methodology for marine environments. This will operate in infra-littoral environments (at depths of between 0 and 30 metres).

MER CALME plans to utilise data from a 2011 research campaign which deployed three listening stations for six months in the Iroise Marine Natural Park.