AUGUST 2021

TRITON STORIES FEATURES SIMON GEERLOFS

This month’s Triton Story features Simon Geerlofs, senior advisor for Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s Marine and Coastal Research Laboratory, whose thought leadership contributed to the inception of Triton. From this effort, he continues to guide PNNL's Coastal Science Division in the development of ocean-based climate solutions. Learn about Geerlofs’ perspective on Triton and the future he sees for marine energy. Read more here.

FIELD NOTES

Joe Haxel retrieving the passive acoustic technology at the University of New Hampshire Living Bridge site. Photo by Jayson Martinez.

The Triton Field Trials underwater noise research team conducted tests at a tidal energy site to describe noise around operational devices and understand potential impacts to marine animals. Triton's return to the University of New Hampshire (UNH) Living Bridge in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and the strategic partnership will contribute to the information needed to fill data gaps around the underwater noise stressor. Joe Haxel, Jayson Martinez, and Garrett Staines deployed passive acoustic drifter technologies to measure sound around an operational turbine.

In September, the underwater noise stressor research team will conduct similar tests around the CalWave wave energy converter deployed at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California. Stay tuned for more from the underwater noise team! Follow our partners at the Living Bridge Project on Instagram here. 

Joe Haxel, Jayson Martinez, and Garrett Staines pictured next to the UNH tidal turbine. Photo courtesy of UNH.

SPOTLIGHT

This summer, Triton welcomed a U.S. Department of Energy Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internships program intern, Christa Hvidsten. Christa is working on a project identifying whale calls near the PacWave marine energy test center in Newport, Oregon. During her 10-week internship, she is analyzing whale vocalization in two locations and near the PacWave site before construction began. Results show strong whale activity in both locations, including gray whale, humpback, and blue whale vocalizations. This information will be used to create baseline information to help scientists monitor the noise impacts of marine energy devices being tested at sites like PacWave. Christa reflects on her project, “The variety in whale calls was absolutely fascinating. I didn't realize how many different calls a specific baleen whale can make. Each whale call is super unique and it made the project fun and interesting.” Christa will present her work in August and stay tuned for her featured Triton Stories. 

TRITON NEWS

Moving hydrokinetic research forward by understanding the interactions with Alaska fish. Video by Amanda Byrd, Alaska Center for Energy and Power

Our partners at the University of Alaska – Fairbanks Alaska Center for Energy and Power created a video highlighting Triton’s recent fieldwork at the Tanana River Hydrokinetic Test Site in Nenana, Alaska. This video features the work Garrett Staines and Bob Mueller did to test methods for observing fish behavior to better understand collision risk around turbines. 

Watch: Triton Collision Risk Research in a Nutshell

Follow our friends at the Alaska Center for Energy and Power on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Triton is designed to support the development and testing of more precise and cost-effective environmental monitoring technologies for marine energy. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory leads Triton on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Water Power Technologies Office.

Connect With Us