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The Bioacoustic Applications Laboratory (LAB) is one of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. BarcelonaTech (UPC) research groups based at the Vilanova i la Geltrú Campus. Set up 20 years ago and part of the University since 2003, LAB was the first European laboratory to specialise in studying noise pollution in the deep ocean. The group has focused on developing technological solutions to tackle a challenge that the scientific community is frequently called upon to address: to define and control the impact of noise pollution (in this case in the marine environment) in a way that does not hinder human activities in the ocean.

But LAB has now moved beyond the academic sphere. With the support of the UPC's Innova Programme, the group has set up its first business project: SONSETC – Making Sense of Sounds, which is also the first spin-off to emerge from the UPC’s Vilanova i la Geltrú Campus. According to Michel André, one of the initiators of the project, “the idea is to offer industry tools that can be used to meet the demands now being formulated by society and public authorities in relation to marine acoustics.” The initiative is a timely one. SONSETC has made the leap to the commercial market just when the European Union has started drafting directives aimed at regulating the noise caused by human activity in the marine environment. The firm offers customised products that allow companies and governments to adapt to the new legislation immediately.

“We've adapted LAB’s technological and academic knowledge to the reality of industry,” says André.

LAB’s business initiative is based mainly on an automatic system developed to detect, classify and localise acoustic events in real time. The integrated system can be used with any hardware, including autonomous buoys, cabled observatories, and underwater vehicles.

The software created and used by SONSETC automatically alerts users when certain acoustic events are detected; for example, the presence of acoustically sensitive species such as cetaceans. The system makes it possible to immediately undertake mitigation actions and ensures that such measures are always carried out in a way that is compatible with the sustainable use of natural resources.

According to LAB forecasts, industrial activity on the high seas “will increase substantially over the next 20 years and lead to greater noise pollution in the oceans.” Michel Andre and his team warn that “the problem facing the business sector and society in general is that many economically important maritime activities are under threat for two reasons: lack of information about the effects of anthropogenic noise on marine ecosystems, and a lack of useful tools to mitigate these effects.” The challenge is to come up with technological solutions that strike a balance between “the interests of industry and ocean conservation.” This is precisely the objective that LAB and now SONSETC have been pursuing by developing and putting into operation the pioneering technology used in a project known as Listening to the Deep Ocean Environment (LIDO), which automatically analyses how sounds produced by human activity affect marine animals The short-term goal is to achieve an acoustically balanced environment in the deep ocean.