The word “Noise” resides in an etymological basket along with the words “annoyance” and “obnoxious.” “Noise” is thought to have been derived from the Latin “noxia’ (to hurt or damage), and Middle English “nausea” (to quarrel). Although some etymologies reach…
Category: Research
What Noise Annoys an Oyster?
When the ocean noise pollution issue came up on everybody’s sonar, the main concern was about the impact of noise on whales and dolphins – what we in our industry refer to as “charismatic megafauna.” There are a number of…
Report from Omaha
A bit over two weeks ago I was in Omaha, Nebraska, at “The 4th International Symposium on Acoustic Communication by Animals.” This event is put up every few years by the Acoustic Society of America (ASA) and allows scientists outside…
World Ocean(s) Day – honoring the sea
Our planet has orbited the sun once more to place us all in position for World Ocean Day! Originally proposed by Canada in 1992 at the UN Summit in Rio de Janeiro. While Ocean Day has been celebrated in…
Some fresh air on seismic surveys
I typically eschew technical excavations in our newsletter, but seismic surveys are an important tent-stake in the ocean noise discussion, so I offer the following three-minute read in hopes that you find it informative and entertaining (if not a bit…
More on OceaNoise2017
The OceaNoise2017 conference I attended last week was more than a playpen for “ocean noise elites.” There was a structure to the event which drew an arc over the dominant themes of the Ocean Noise topic. I was honored to…
Field Report from Barcelona
I spent last week at Vilanova i la Geltrú – just down the coast from Barcelona, Spain at OceaNoise2017, a conference specifically focused on ocean noise pollution issues. All conferences have a purpose, but this one also had a personality.…
The sound of climate disruption
It has been known for quite some time that excessive anthropogenic carbon dioxide is modifying ocean chemistry, increasing acidity, and compromising shell growth in calciferous sea life. The effects of this have been confirmed in sea snails, corals, and oysters,…
Expert Opinions
This week I have been hopping in and out of the Society of Marine Mammologists conference in San Francisco. This is an international event and brings mostly scientists from around the world to discuss all things Marine Mammal –…
Detection, Classification, Localization and Density Estimation
Last week I attended a workshop on the detection, classification, localization, and density estimation (DCLDE) of marine mammals. This field of inquiry is maturing around the development of more productive use of “Passive Acoustic Monitoring” (PAM) – which is essentially…