The Minister of Transport, the Honourable Marc Garneau, has announced $2.5M through the Quiet Vessel Initiative to help establish and operate the world-class Marine Acoustic Research Station (MARS) in the St. Lawrence Estuary. The research station will be comprised of underwater hydrophones that are anchored to the sea bed, and connected to telecommunication buoys in the Laurentian Channel shipping corridor, near Rimouski, Quebec. The research will help address the impacts of underwater vessel noise on the environment and results will inform the development of further Canadian quiet vessel solutions nationally and internationally, and can be used to measure the effectiveness of innovations like new propeller designs, vessel maintenance practices, and new types of hull coatings to help reduce underwater vessel noise.
