The Triton team is excited to introduce a collection of projects that advance Triton’s mission to support marine energy deployments through environmental research. In addition to continuing projects for developing a model for fish encounter rates around underwater turbines, using turbine-integrated devices to detect animal collisions, and conducting outreach and engagement, Triton recently launched new projects! These projects:
Investigate fish and invertebrate behavioral responses to marine energy acoustic emissions
Research sonar capabilities for collision risk monitoring
Develop annotated datasets for machine learning applications, and
Research how end users seek and process information to advance marine energy decision-making.
Acoustic Particle Motion
The Acoustic Particle Motion team conducting dose response experiments with salmon at the “Big Blue” tank at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory-Richland. (Photos by Joe Haxel | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory).
Marine mammals rely on changes in sound pressure to hear, while fish and aquatic invertebrates primarily use particle motion to sense acoustic signals in their environment.
Research on the acoustic particle motion component of underwater sound and its effects on marine life is limited with respect to marine energy. Triton’s Acoustic Particle Motion project, led by Joe Haxel, aims to fill knowledge gaps surrounding the effects of acoustic particle motion and substrate vibration emissions from offshore renewable energy on fish and invertebrates. Through this collaborative project that engages with various subject matter experts, Triton researchers are conducting controlled waterborne acoustic and substrate vibration exposure tank-based experiments at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)-Richland and PNNL-Sequim.
At the PNNL-Richland Aquatic Research Laboratory, the team is exploring physiological effects from marine energy–related acoustic particle motion exposures on yearling Chinook salmon. In this tank experiment, the salmon will be exposed to a range of well-characterized acoustic particle motion stimuli and undergo subsequent blood draws to measure stress biomarkers (e.g., glucose, lactate, and cortisol levels) at different time intervals after exposure. Additionally, the Triton team is conducting a tank experiment at PNNL-Sequim with Dungeness crabs, a species with commercial and cultural significance. These tests aim to understand crab sensitivity and behavioral responses to marine energy–related substrate vibration. In the coming years, the team aims to expand these experiments from the tanks into Sequim Bay as the project progresses from small-scale laboratory experiments tomesocosm studies in a controlled open-water environment.
Imaging Sonar Capabilities
The Imaging Sonar Capabilities (ISC) project will quantify the capabilities of acoustic cameras for fish collision monitoring and initiate the development of a publicly available dataset that includes targets approaching a moving turbine. This year, the ISC team, led by Emma Cotter and Garrett Staines, will develop an experimental design for tank experiments at the University of New Hampshire by using surrogate targets forced to collide with a turbine in a tank. This experiment will be repeated in various configurations to help guide the next phase of testing around a deployed riverine turbine. This work ultimately aims to determine best practices and effective use of acoustic cameras for fish collision monitoring.
Blade-Integrated Collision Detection
Researchers place a marine mammal surrogate into the flume to see how the surrogate behaves around a tidal turbine prototype in the simulated current. (Photo by the University of Washington).
The Blade Integrated Collision Detection (BICD) project (previously known as the Integrate Collision Detection and Mitigation Project), led by Emma Cotter and Molly Grear, is exploring a new technique for detecting animal collision with underwater turbines. Strain gauges, which have been used to monitor the structural health of the blades, could also be used to detect animal collisions. Over the past several years, the BICD team has conducted flume experiments to show turbine blade strain from collisions with animal models and a small-scale device in a laboratory environment. In this next phase of the BICD project, the aim is to determine whether collisions can be detected with similar accuracy in realistic flow and turbulent conditions. Because technological limitations pose difficulties in detecting collisions, the BICD team hopes to determine how blade-integrated strain gauges can be applied for deployment-scale devices and determine their ability to detect collisions in realistic flow environments. To achieve this, the BICD team will conduct a TEAMER test in different flow conditions by using the University of Washington’s Alice C. Tyler flume.
Probability of Encounter Model
Triton researchers and partners at the University of New Hampshire (UNH)-led Atlantic Marine Energy Center assess data from sonar tank experiments. (Photos by Makena Lee | University of New Hampshire)
Triton’s expertise in informing collision risk and predictive modeling has advanced predictions of encounter rates with underwater turbines. During the first phase of the Probability of Encounter Model (PoEM) task, led by Kate Buenau and Garrett Staines, Triton developed a prototype model that estimates the likelihood of fish encountering current energy converters during periods of smolt heading to the ocean.
For the next phase, the PoEM project aims to improve the understanding and capabilities of side-looking sonar, which is used to monitor fish position in river environments. Additional data will be incorporated into PoEM to improve predictions of encounter rates of smolts with turbines on the Kvichak River. The data will also help quantify sources of error and provide a measure of confidence to the encounter rate estimates. The team will travel to the University of New Hampshire in 2026 to test data collection methods of side-looking sonar and determine where the fish are located in the sonar beam under different controlled conditions. These efforts will continue to refine PoEM and advance the model’s ability to address fish collision rates in riverine habitats.
Data Annotation for Marine Monitoring
The Data Annotation for Marine Monitoring (DAMM) project, led by Marg Daly, is a new effort launching in 2025. The aim of the DAMM project is to develop a diverse collection of annotated training datasets to facilitate machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI)–driven data processing and analysis algorithms that can improve the efficiency of environmental monitoring technologies. Aside from providing improvements in the efficiency of processing and analysis, publicly available annotated datasets can be used to train ML models and AI decision-making for marine energy monitoring systems in real time. Although annotation and data augmentation are necessary in these models, they are associated with challenges, including bias, error, an imbalance of represented data, and reduced generalization and scalability. Ultimately, the DAMM projects seeks to provide priority datasets for the marine energy industry and leverage data already collected from Triton and other related projects.
End-User Engagement and Evaluation Study
To improve the effectiveness and impact of Triton work, it is crucial to understand how audiences access, use, and establish trust in resources. To accomplish this, Triton’s End-User Engagement and Evaluation Study (E3), led by Kevin Duffy and Cailene Gunn, will seek to qualitatively understand how Triton’s audiences seek and process information to inform decision-making for the marine energy industry. Marine energy community, stay tuned for opportunities to get involved with this work!
News
Triton Tethered Balloon Systems Research Published in Marine Biology
Graphical Abstract from Amerson and Dexheimer (2025)
Graphic courtesy of United Nations World Oceans Day
World Oceans Day was observed on June 8, but there are ways to celebrate and learn about the importance of the ocean throughout the month. Learn more on the World Oceans Day website.
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 Department of Energy’s Water Power Technologies Office.
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