The following joint news release was written by COAST (Centre for Ocean Applied Sustainable Technologies), and republished with permission.
A machine learning-driven web app providing whale and dolphin IDs from hydrophone recordings will represent Canada at the Grand Finale of international competition Ocean Hackathon® 10.
The winning project was chosen during the Victoria edition of 48-hour innovation sprint Ocean Hackathon® 10 this past weekend, co-hosted by COAST, an initiative of the South Island Prosperity Partnership (SIPP), Greater Victoria’s economic development alliance and Ocean Networks Canada, an initiative of University of Victoria. Regional editions were simultaneously convened in twelve cities and nine countries around the world.
Produced by Campus Mondial de la Mer, the international competition brings together marine science and digital innovation in a format designed to inspire and engage emerging ocean entrepreneurs.
Participants gain access to vast marine databases and receive guidance from experienced mentors and industry professionals while developing their projects. They then pitch their prototypes to a panel of judges.
ONC's impact and capacity development manager, Dwight Owens, speaks at the Ocean Hackathon hosted at COAST in downtown Victoria, BC.
This year, 17 participating university students in the Victoria edition (the only one held in Canada) were assigned to four groups to help solve ocean data challenges.
The winning app was developed by B.C. university students Olivia Whitelaw, Grace Bertozzi (ONC Co-op student), Pranav Rajesh Krishnan, Jossie Yan and Leanne Farmer. Dubbed Sea Who's Calling, it is a prototype monitoring tool with potential for global application.
Its primary goal is to support decision-making for the Royal Canadian Navy when planning exercises to mitigate potential impacts on marine mammals, while also providing accurate data on each type of whale or dolphin that may be in the area.
The team says: "Our challenge was to classify multiple marine species using underwater sound. We learned that the navy is seeking technology to minimize the impact of sonar testing and other activities on marine mammals. We realized there was a market here where our solution could be fully utilized, since the military had a need to identify many species, unlike some of the other applications we'd explored."
Initial trials show Sea Who's Calling can classify marine mammals with a higher degree of accuracy than its closest competitor, while also being able to discern and distinguish more species. In testing on expert-labelled recordings from Ocean Networks Canada, it outperformed leading bioacoustics models from Google DeepMind, Cornell's K. Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics and the Earth Species Project.
The team notes "Once our system can provide real-time marine mammal classifications, it could support a wide range of marine projects, including conservation, research, First Nations Guardian programs, and vessel strike prevention efforts."
Project Sea Who's Calling will now advance to the global Grand Finale, taking place in Brest, France on December 10, 2026.
Winning team, from the Sea Who’s Calling presents their project. Pictured members are Olivia Whitelaw, Grace Bertozzi.
Data mining and machine learning shape solutions supporting marine conservation
Each of the four projects focused on solutions leveraging technology to promote a sustainable marine environment.
Ian Clarke, Jocelyn Bachmann, Sophie Allen and Kai Ryall Ota’s project, titled Super El Niño Tracker, is a web app tracking El Niño’s effect on the Salish Sea and northeast Pacific. By analyzing past data and patterns, fishers and marine conservationists can better anticipate how the 2026–2027 El Niño will affect the marine environment.
Asish George, Khushi Narang, Maleeha Kaikaus and Wendi Zhong developed SEAsk: Know your Sail, an interactive onboard kiosk that turns live ocean data collected from ferries into 3D visuals and maps for passengers. It also leverages machine learning to suggest routes that could help captains reduce biofouling. BC Ferries provided technical support and guidance in the development of SEAsk.
Daniel Qiu, Rafail Jabbarov, Frank Deng, Ruiling Jin and Marko Pavlovic presented FinFinders, a machine learning identifier that pinpoints specific fish species in underwater camera footage. The aim is to provide public education while supporting the fishing industry in managing catch programs.
Ocean Hackathon® 10 participants and volunteers.
Local organizers say B.C. deserves the spotlight
In Victoria, Ocean Hackathon was organized by COAST and co-hosted by Ocean Networks Canada, with funding provided by Ecosystem Partner Canada’s Ocean Supercluster and Supporting Sponsor Victoria Foundation.
Anthropic gave each participant a month’s access to AI tool Claude Max 20x, while collaborative earth science cloud platform StratusGeo provided its compute environment. The contributions from both Anthropic and StratusGeo equipped the participants with advanced cloud computing facilities to enable more rapid development of their solutions.
Jason Goldsworthy, Executive Director for COAST, says participating in global competitions like these is an integral component of building B.C.'s ocean innovation industry. "B.C. boasts an incredible array of established and emerging entrepreneurs whose solutions and products are readily implemented in marine environments around the world. Over the weekend, we were continually impressed by the quality of talent and passion displayed by this year's competitors.
"Each project has the potential to move from concept to product, and we're excited to support each team if they wish to further develop their ideas. Through hosting events like Ocean Hackathon, COAST is building a bridge between academic research and talent with commercially viable solutions and industry, thus paving the way for Canada to lead this emerging sector and generating high-paying jobs in British Columbia."
Dwight Owens, Impact and Capacity Development Manager, Ocean Networks Canada, notes, "Events like these serve three important purposes: they provide opportunities for computer and data science students to work at a high level with real ocean data, tackling real ocean challenges; they raise the visibility and utility of government-funded ocean observation data and facilities; and they result in viable prototypes that could be developed into working tools for addressing some of our most pressing ocean impacts, such as underwater noise, ocean warming, ecosystem change and reducing shipping impacts in our crowded Salish Sea waters."
As a key Ecosystem Partner for this event, Canada's Ocean Supercluster provided funding support. Kendra MacDonald, CEO, says “Canada has the talent, ocean expertise, and innovative thinking necessary to lead in the global ocean economy. Ocean Hackathon® demonstrates what is possible when we give emerging innovators the opportunity to apply new technologies to real-world ocean challenges. We’re proud to support an initiative that is helping position Canada as a global leader in ocean innovation.”
2026 project has high hopes
Last year, the winning project from Victoria’s edition of Ocean Hackathon® 9, also hosted by COAST and Ocean Networks Canada at COAST’s Ocean Innovation Hub in Victoria, was the only one from North America to make it to the Grand Finale.
Out of 57 teams worldwide, Ocean Drift took second place overall.
This year’s Victoria representatives are excited to once again put B.C. and Canada’s ocean innovation in the spotlight, demonstrating that commercial success and conservation can go hand in hand.
About COAST:
COAST (Centre for Ocean Applied Sustainable Technologies) is advancing commercialization of Pacific Canada’s ocean innovation economy. COAST’s mission is to build B.C. into a global leader in the world’s rapidly growing ocean economy, paving the way for new sustainable and export-driven jobs and enterprises.
COAST has a membership of over 610 individuals, companies, and organizations involved in the region’s ocean economy, and opened B.C.'s first ocean-focused coworking space, the 7,000-square-foot Victoria-based COAST Ocean Innovation Hub, in October 2024. COAST is an initiative of the South Island Prosperity Partnership (SIPP), Greater Victoria’s economic development alliance.
About Ocean Networks Canada:
Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) operates world-leading observatories in the deep ocean and coastal waters of the Pacific, Atlantic, and Arctic coasts of Canada as well as the Southern Ocean, collecting ocean data that accelerates scientific discovery and informs services and solutions for a resilient planet. ONC’s cabled observatories provide continuous power and Internet connectivity to scientific instruments, cameras, and more than 12,000 ocean sensors, with data accessible through its Oceans 3.0 portal. ONC also operates mobile and land-based assets, including coastal radar. ONC is an initiative of the University of Victoria and a Major Research Facility of Canada.
About Canada’s Ocean Supercluster:
Canada’s Ocean Supercluster accelerates the development and commercialization of made-in-Canada ocean solutions in blue food, Arctic & surveillance, ocean energy, and marine decarbonization, while also growing more companies, creating more jobs, and attracting ocean talent. As Canada’s national ocean cluster, the OSC is a convenor of members, partners, and networks and a catalyst for transformative growth that helps build the robust ecosystem needed to help realize Ambition 2035 – a 5X growth potential in ocean in Canada by 2035. To date, the OSC has approved nearly 170 projects valued at more than $700 million, which will deliver more than 300 new made-in-Canada ocean products, processes, and services to sell to the world. Every dollar invested in Ocean Supercluster projects generates more than five times its value in GDP contribution, with the following economic benefits to Canada as of March 2025:
- $1.7 billion in total economic output
- $1 billion in GDP contribution
- Nearly $748 million in total labour income
- Close to 10,000 jobs created
- $286 million in total tax revenues generated
Header image: Members of the winning team Sea Who’s Calling, with organizers. Left to right: Jason Goldsworthy, executive director of Centre for Ocean Applied Sustainable Technologies (COAST); team members: Leanne Farmer, Rajesh Krishnan, Grace Bertozzi, Jossie Yan,Olivia Whitelaw; and Dwight Owens, Impact and Capacity Development Manager, Ocean Networks Canada (ONC)
