Huawei, ORCA Commit To Protect Ireland Marine Life

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 20 (Bernama) -- Huawei Ireland and Ocean Research and Conservation Association (ORCA) of Ireland recently released the latest key findings on marine life protection in Ireland discovered during their joint work on the Smart Whales Sound project.

According to Huawei in a statement, the joint-study found that shipping lanes in the Celtic Sea south of Ireland are significantly contributing to noise pollution in the marine environment.

Prior research has shown that ocean noise can affect a multitude of marine species, including seals, fish and even squid; as well as threaten the survival of whales.

To date, the real-time multi-species detection system has shown it has practical implications for marine conservation, in which it can provide real-time notifications to ships in areas where whales are present with its new acoustics data acquisition system.

The system could potentially help in the planning of key marine infrastructure, such as offshore renewable energy facilities, to minimise noise impact on marine life during the construction phase.

“Huawei believes that no one should be left behind in the digital world and we have made it our mission to put digital inclusion front and centre of our business. In addition to environmental protection, we believe that digital technologies also play a key role in many other areas,” said Head of PR of Huawei Ireland, Luke McDonnell.

Meanwhile, ORCA Ireland Co-founder and Executive Director, Emer Keaveney said: “Recent advances in technology provide increasing opportunity to use these innovations for good and to enhance our understanding of the natural world.

“To achieve this, we are using Huawei's [AI development platform] ModelArts and cloud storage, coupled with machine learning, to automate wildlife monitoring for marine conservation.”

Beginning March 2021, the ORCA Ireland Smart Whale Sounds project is run in partnership with Rainforest Connection (RFCx), and supported by Huawei Ireland through the TECH4ALL initiative, as the first real-time marine bioacoustics study in Ireland.

-- BERNAMA