Truro-based Ocean Sonics, a maker of equipment that listens to and monitors the oceans, has launched a west coast operation called Ocean Sonics Pacific.

In a statement, the company said the new venture will facilitate real-time listening on Canada’s West Coast. The work will be headed by Ken Brough, a veteran of Vancouver’s tech sector.

The company makes the icListen Smart Hydrophone. which it describes as the world’s first completely digital, real-time underwater listening device.

In 2011, the first of its hydrophones were installed on Ocean Networks Canada’s VENUS Observatory. VENUS stands for Victoria Experimental Network Under the Sea and is a cabled sea floor observatory.

Ocean Sonics now works with clients working in diverse sectors, including marine mammal and environmental research, regulatory compliance and vessel noise mitigation.

“We want to be present to support existing and new users of icListen products,” Ocean Sonics CEO and President Mark Wood said in the statement. “Together with our users, we are advancing the interests of ocean science, stewardship and ethical ocean industry.  

“Our goal is to make sound data more accessible,” he added. “We do that by building excellent tools and supporting those exploring and preserving our oceans through acoustics.”

Last year, the company moved to a new custom-made headquarters in Truro Heights.   

At the time, the company was looking to expand beyond its main markets of Asia, Europe and North America into South America and Australia.

The monitoring and measuring of underwater sounds is a new and growing market with an increasing range of applications, the company said in 2019.

The company said it is one of the providers for a Department of Fisheries and Oceans network of hydrophones established in the Vancouver Harbour area to gauge the reaction of marine mammals to loud noises, such as construction noise and sounds made by shipping traffic.

The company is a certified B Corp (a for-profit company pledged to provide positive impacts for its employees, communities and the planet).