The interest in the effect of anthropogenic noise on marine life increasing rapidly, this is driven primarily by legislations in many countries that noise can be considered to be a pollutant, as for the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive. One particular area of concern has been in the interaction of military tactical sonar and the acoustically more sensitive species of cetacean, in particular the effect on beaked whales. Five ecological acoustics recorders (EAR) buoy having a sampling frequency of 80 kHz and a hydrophone with a flat sensitivity of -193.5 ± 1dB re 1 μPa up to 40 kHz have been deployed in the Northern Mediterranean at a depth of about 850 m in a canyon region known to host a population of Cuvier beaked whales (Ziphius cavirostris). The area is also located in the nearby of different shipping harbors and ferries routes. The utility of the EAR systems is that they simultaneously allow monitoring of noise levels across a wide frequency range while simultaneously allowing assessment of the presence of a range of different species – including Cuvier beaked whale sperm whale and dolphins. Here we discuss the initial results for noise assessment and for cetacean monitoring.