The following is a request for support to attend an international standards meeting in England. Frequent Flier miles and financial support would be deeply appreciated! OCR is a member of the International Standards Organization (ISO) and anAmerican National Standards Institute…
NOAA Tinkers with acoustical standards to appease industry
Some improvements were recently made to the acoustical standards but most were “academic” and just promised to remove some of the ambiguity from the regulations. But a troubling component was the somewhat arbitrary tinkering with the Low Frequency exposure thresholds – substantiated with…
The Poignancy of Earth Day
This year I am finding it hard to compose a cheerful dispatch on Earth Day. I’ve always been mildly skeptical about taking a single day to express our love of this fabulous planet and all that she provides. This is…
Workshop on Ocean Noise Science, Regulations, and Practice
I’m just synthesizing the conversations, data, and information presented at a workshop co-sponsored by the California Gray Whale Coalition and Ocean Conservation Research at the Oakland offices of the Center for Biological Diversity on Monday, April 11. The purpose of…
NOAA-NMFS Acoustical Guidelines review
We’ve just submitted our comments on the final proposed changes for the “Acoustical Guidelines” from NOAA Fisheries (aka National Marine Fisheries Service or NMFS). These are the guidelines defining sound exposure “Level A” impacts – i.e. physical damage – from…
The Public Voice Prevails in the Atlantic
On Tuesday the Obama Administration revealed their five year leasing plan for the US Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) for 2017 – 2022. Much to the joy of the “keep it in the ground” constituents the lease sales for the Atlantic were…
The far-reaching impacts of chronic ocean noise
While it is not surprising, it is a bit alarming that scientific evidence is revealing that the impacts of chronic ocean noise on marine life that are broader and deeper than what has heretofore been considered. Some of these revelations come…
Mass stranding report and review
This last weekend an article from the Guardian was brought to our attention announcing an investigation report released about a Mass Stranding Event (MSE) that occurred on July of 2011. Somehow we missed this at the time of publication…
How loud is the ocean now?
A few years back we worked on a modeling exercise to explore the historic noise levels in the ocean prior to the industrialization of the ocean, which began around the turn of the last century when fossil fuel came…