Fog clings to the Golden Gate, swallowing the booming horns of cargo ships as they attempt to warn other vessels of their presence. Onboard a small research vessel nearby, underwater microphones called hydrophones are lowered beneath the surface along with other sensors, ready to capture the hidden choir of San Francisco Bay — whales.
Ray Duran, founder of BayQuest, the nonprofit behind this mission, peers through his binoculars, scanning for ripples or shadows that might reveal one.
This is a typical mission for the Aquarium of the Bay’s research vessel Mike Reigle, home to the SeaSounds Project. The project, which began its first missions in June, uses hydrophones to monitor how ship noise affects whales in one of the West Coast’s busiest waterways.
“The end aim is to show that they are impacted by the sound,” said Firuze Gocke, co-creator of the project and board member of the American Cetacean Society. “The noise is really influencing every part of their life and making it difficult.”
Despite a dramatic rise in whale deaths in the Bay Area — with 2025 already surpassing any year in the past-quarter century — acoustic monitoring of marine mammals in and around the Bay remains limited. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration maintains a hydrophone in Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary, off the coast of Point Reyes, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) operates one in Monterey Bay. But the San Francisco Bay and the Pacific coast around the Golden Gate lacks dedicated whale monitoring.
The SeaSounds Project was created to address this blind spot. Amid the rumble of passing ships, the team tunes into the hidden world of whales, documenting the vocalizations that reveal their migrations, feeding habits, and social behavior—all in the name of helping them avoid disturbances from ships.
Duran calls the SeaSounds Project crew “a ragtag team of scientists and captains just getting out there and making a difference.” The group has grown into an extensive network over the past year, but the idea was sparked from an incident years ago, when Duran spent his days guiding whale-watching tours in the waters surrounding the Farallon Islands.
On one trip in 2015, after spotting several whales, passengers were thrilled to see a humpback surface just 50 feet from the boat. The moment of awe quickly soured when a nearby fishing vessel cruised directly over the whale, its lines and hooks dragging through the water. Passengers were outraged. Amid the chaos, an elderly woman turned to Duran.
“I still recall her face and her eyes when she asked ‘Isn’t there anything we can do?’” he remembered.
That question stayed with him. Years later, BayQuest was born as his answer to the woman’s question. “We’re doing something about it now,” he said.
What began as a conversation between Duran and Gocke reflecting on that incident has evolved into a collaboration with a range of organizations, including marine science and acoustics experts from institutions such as Cal Maritime Academy and MBARI, as well as conservation groups like Ocean Conservation Research and Point Blue Conservation Science.
Key to the effort is BayQuest’s early adoption of Spotter Sound, an AI-enabled monitor developed by Sofar Ocean of San Francisco. This compact, solar-powered sensor floats on the surface, recording underwater sounds, tracking vessel noise and monitoring environmental conditions in real time.
Dan Breyre, head of product for Sofar, said BayQuest is taking an innovative approach to this kind of research. “The way in which they’re deploying is a little bit different than some of the other people that are using our system,” he said.
Traditionally, hydrophones are stationary and moored for months before their data is retrieved. The SeaSounds Project, however, takes an opportunistic approach, anchoring the boat and lowering equipment into the water or sometimes towing a hydrophone behind the vessel. The data is instantly sent to the BayQuest team and then to senior noise analyst Dimitri Ponirakis for deeper analysis, while Sofar scientists use the same information to refine their technology. The Sofar team brings expertise in ocean sensing, while the SeaSounds Project contributes marine mammal science, creating what Breyre called a “cool symbiotic relationship.”
Maintaining and refining the technology is no easy task. “I am continually impressed with how hard it is to keep things working in the ocean environment. The ocean’s a really hard space. I’ve never worked in space, but I hear sending things to the bottom of the ocean is much harder,” Sofar mechanical engineer Nick Buemond said. Corrosion, pressure, waves, and even curious seals pose constant challenges.
This real-time acoustic data is paired with ocean chemistry readings and meticulous human observation. “Once we deploy the hydrophone, we start the timing because our aim is to get our data for 30 minutes,” Gocke said. As the clock runs, the team logs everything: birds skimming the surface, vessels passing by, anything that moves or makes a sound. It’s quiet, focused work. For Gocke, time on the boat feels like “being on top of a mountain.”
The immediate aim is to create a comprehensive map of whale migration and gathering areas in and around San Francisco Bay, using AI to identify where dangerous overlaps with shipping lanes could occur. But the ultimate goal is what Duran calls an “acoustic superhighway” with multiple sensors running along the West Coast.
Their vision draws inspiration from East Coast programs that use near real-time acoustic detection to alert vessels to nearby whales, as well as the Protecting Blue Whales & Blue Skies initiative, which encourages ships to reduce speeds in the Santa Barbara Channel off Southern California.
Duran also hopes to engage the public as citizen scientists and inspire stewardship for the Bay’s biodiversity.
“Naturally, we love what we do. We want to share the magic of the bay and the magic of all the wildlife, especially with young people who can now make a difference,” he said.
For more information about the SeaSounds Project, or to get involved, contact Ray Duran at ray@bayquest.org.