Interesting story about Vineyard Wind, the big offshore-wind project being developed south of Cape Cod, trying to track whales via their blowhole emissions among other things to reduce the wind farm’s impact on them.
Vineyard Wind is looking to capture something much more subtle as it continues developing the nation’s first commercial-scale, offshore wind farm in coming months: Whale blows — those fleeting clouds of moist breath the marine mammals expel when they surface to get some fresh air
The company, which is constructing its 800-megawatt Vineyard Wind 1 project in shallow waters 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard and bringing the energy ashore at Covell Beach in Barnstable, is planning to use an emerging artificial intelligence and computer vision system called Awarion — developed by Cambridge-based Charles River Analytics — for marine mammal, ship, and fishing gear detection as offshore work gets underway.
The system uses electro-optical and infrared video to detect, analyze, and report on the presence of whales, ships, and other objects — such as fishing buoys and equipment — at long distances.
The entire story on EnergyCentral is here.
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