Marine animal bodies are close to the density of water, so unlike airborne sound that bounces off the bodies of terrestrial animals, water-borne sound can pass right through – opening up the question; do marine animals have ways of hearing through their bodies?
Needlefish at night – photo Umeed Mistry Our last newsletter was an overview of the phenomenology of the sound perception of fishes in the context of lab-produced auditory threshold testing – revealing that measuring the acoustical sensitivities of fishes in…
Fishes can “hear” their surroundings though their bodies – sensing where they are. Are they “aware” of this? Perhaps no more than we are “aware” of seeing through our eyes.
Most of the auditory threshold research on fishes has assumed that they use sound much as mammals do. We found this assumption to be somewhat out in the weeds…
A close encounter with a pod of wild orcas is a dream for many divers. As the ocean’s apex predator, orcas are equally as graceful as they are powerful.
s I’ve previously indicated, I’ve been sparing my nerves by not reacting seriously until I “see the whites of their eyes,” – and I have to take in with amusement some of the conflicts and narratives that are being revealed.
Standard metrics and vocabulary assures us that scientific and technical research is clearly understood, and repeatable. But it also can confer commercial advantages if the “Standard” conforms to already-developed, proprietary technologies.
I realized that if we were going to come up with clear regulatory guidelines (why we did this exercise), we would all need to be fishing in the same metrics pond.
If this approach was employed in the Underwater Internet of Things – establishing communication channels predicated on unique frequency-shift sequences specific to the particular communication channels, it might go far in allaying our concerns about turning the entire ocean into a digital-communications mosh pit.
