Marine mammals suffer several direct impacts of coastal development, in particular the development of ports. America-born scientist Deanna Clement's research has been a deep-dive into the lives of whales and dolphins as they forage and migrate around New Zealand's waters. Produced by Kadambari Raghukumar.

One of the main human-made noises that can permanently or temporarily injury marine mammal hearing is the sound of piling - when ports are being constructed and piles are being hammered into the sea-bed.

The impact of coastal development on marine mammals' habitats and migration, and specifically the impact of port development around New Zealand is the focus of marine ecologist, Deanna Clement's research.

Deanna, originally from Missouri, is based in Nelson with The Cawthron institute which celebrates its centenary this year. She spoke with Kadambari Raghukumar in this week's episode, on her recent work.

Listen to the full interview:

Deanna and her peers have been studying whale migration paths on the east coast of South Island and port construction noise around New Zealand through passive underwater acoustics.

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The implications of this sort of research are pretty far-reaching - from conservation to tourism to helping open water aquaculture farms avoid accidents involving the animals getting entangled while they migrate or forage.

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This summer her team plans to trial their latest remote sensing tool for studying marine mammals - digital recording tags, to work with Fisheries and Department of Conservation to monitor our endangered Maui and Hector dolphins.

The results of the research by Deanne and her peers on port construction noise is expected to be released by Cawthron Institute in the coming months.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details