When we humans think of language it is typically in terms of transferrable meaning – “this sound means this idea or this thing.” This is likely an evolutionary adaptation incorporating our dependence on visuality and the consequences of time…
Category: Bioacoustics
We’ve come a long way from the “Silent Seas”
It is amazing how many people in the field of ocean science and conservation credit Jacques Cousteau as the inspiration for their love of the sea. Just when color TV was migrating into the American living room Cousteau was offering…
What do they really hear?
Earlier this year a paper by Christne Erbe et.al was published in the open source Public Library of Science (PLoS-One) that frames ocean noise exposures in a sensible and informative manner. For various adaptive reasons animals are sensitive to sounds…
The little things that count (also)
In the early years of the ocean noise discussion there were heated debates about whether or not introduced noise was really harmful to marine life. Our understanding was shallow and the tools blunt. Even when animals washed ashore deafened, dead,…
Bio-inspired communication signals
Shark Week – Sharks have ears too! (2)
In response to our most recent newsletter on shark hearing, bioacoustics elder and fish hearing expert Art Popper contacted us to provide a more accurate pedigree on the understanding of shark hearing. While there was observed evidence of shark hearing…
What can animals hear?
While catastrophic whale strandings first brought the public’s attention to the ocean noise impacts, a greater noise concern is the impact of the ever increasing “acoustic smog” from human noise sources. This problem is called “masking” – what happens when…
Ice Seal Vocalizations
The vocalizations of “ice seals”, a bearded seal in this case, use complex tones and wide ranges of frequencies. Yet some of the simpler sounds created by ships passing through their environment may have the effect of masking their communications…
Report from Kansas Acoustics Society meeting
I’ve just returned from a semi-annual Acoustics Society meeting in Kansas City. These events bring together many scientists, researchers, engineers, and academics who are plying the broad arena of acoustics.. The field of acoustics is a potpourri of disciplines that…
Press takes interest in historic ocean noise
This week I delivered a paper on the historic noise levels in the ocean prior to industrialized whaling. It turns out that the ocean was pretty noisy back in 1800, but the noise was all biological − with a preponderance…