Repurposing fiber optic cables to revolutionize marine conservation
With support from a $1.5 million grant from Allen Family Philanthropies, Dr. Shima Abadi is leading a research team in a new way to monitor marine animals on a large scale.
Introduction
In October 2025, two kilometers of fiber optic cable were laid in Haro Strait off the coast of Washington in a trial that could demonstrate the global potential that thousands of miles of existing fiber optic cable offers for monitoring endangered marine species.
The University of Washington, with funding from Allen Family Philanthropies, launched this innovative research project that has the potential to revolutionize marine conservation with a new way to monitor marine mammals on a large scale, using an existing global network of previously dormant telecommunications cables.
The project offers a groundbreaking approach using novel technology called Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) that provides detailed, real-time monitoring of vast ocean areas. This technology has the potential to make a global impact by enabling the thousands of kilometers of underwater cabling currently deployed across the world — which is especially compelling for research into endangered species that are difficult to track, such as Southern Resident orcas.
The research is led by Dr. Shima Abadi, an oceanographer and professor at UW Bothell’s School of STEM with a joint appointment at UW’s School of Oceanography. To test this technology’s capabilities, Dr. Abadi and her research team used tens of kilometers of pre-existing fiber optic cables near Whidbey Island and Seattle to monitor Southern Resident orcas over a two-year period.
The co-primary investigators in the project — assisted by UW graduate students Isabelle Brandicourt and Samantha Juber — include Dr. William Wilcock (UW School of Oceanography), Dr. Brad Lipovsky and Dr. Marine Denolle (UW Department of Earth and Space Sciences) and Dr. Scott Veirs (M.A. ’97 and Ph.D. ’03, both in Oceanography from the UW) from Beam Reach. As the project expands, opportunities will open for undergraduate students to participate in data analysis and in-the-field experiments.
"This innovative approach could be a breakthrough in conservation efforts and open new possibilities to expand analysis on a much larger temporal and spatial scale."
Using light to hear the whales
Watch as the research team arrives onshore to activate the fiber optic cables that will monitor the movements and behavior of Southern Resident orcas. Once the cable is securely attached to the interrogator, the team then leads the cable two kilometers west and south as data is captured in real time.
Return to this page over the next two years to monitor the progress of this exciting new research.
Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS)
Where past research has relied on hydrophones, which detect sounds at a singular point, DAS transforms fiber optic cables into receiver arrays that pick up sounds along the full length of the cable. The fiber optic cables connect to an instrument known as an interrogator, which sends laser pulses through the cable and measures when it is affected by vibrations or acoustic energy.
This allows researchers to pinpoint and analyze the precise location and nature of the disturbance. DAS has previously been used to detect seismic activity, but in the last several years, it’s been proven successful at detecting marine mammals.
For a detailed text description of the DAS animation, vist this project's about webpage.
Choose a sound to visualize its real-time frequency spectrum and its evolution over time.
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