The Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) is sponsoring a national workshop on the mitigation practices for seismic airgun exploration. This event will be attended by a whole array of marine scientists, oil and gas industry engineers, and a…
Category: OCR News
Earth Hour 28 March 2009
While this is not directly related to ocean noise pollution, climate change is the large rubric under which all other planetary issues dwell. There are still those who fear that taking the necessary deep actions on climate solutions will somehow…
March 2009 DC visit recap
I have just returned from my Washington DC visit. The trip was both productive and enjoyable. The ‘anti-environmental’ air of our last administration is palpably clearing, and while there remains some die-hard obstructionists in Congress, there is a profound sea…
March 2009 DC visit and Strandings
I am currently on route to Washington DC to attend the “Blue Vision Ocean Summit” coordinated by David Helvarg’s Blue Frontiers. This should be a good dose of “Old Home Week” with up to 500 Ocean Activists and colleagues all…
Dec. 2008 holiday gifts
This last week has ushered forth two great developments for the ocean. The first is actually a retraction of a Bush-driven policy that would have seriously compromised the National Environmental Policy Act by allowing NOAA to bypass external review when…
More on ESA threat
I am including a bit more on the current end-run on the Endangered Species Act (ESA). I mentioned this issue in last week’s e-mail, which was generated in response to the proposed changes to the Act in the Federal Register. The easiest…
New Orleans ASA report
I have just returned from an Acoustical Society meeting held in New Orleans last week where I presented a paper on using natural occurring sounds and biological thresholds as a basis for an ocean noise criteria. Our proposed “metric” is simple to…