Long-time colleague and NRDC ocean noise pollution attorney Michael Jasny was featured this weekend on National Public Radio in a brief piece that clearly highlights some of the problems with the increasing noise in the ocean. It is really worth…
Mid Frequency Sonar bothers blue whales as well!
The ocean noise pollution issue first came up on the general public’s sonar back in 2000 when the Navy was proposing a long distance submarine communications program called “Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System – Low Frequency Active” or “SURTASS-LFA” (in…
How do coral reef critters find home?
The life cycles for many coral reef animals are a bit tricky. Coral reefs are huge feeding bodies with billions of mouths looking for food. Much of that food is provided by the inhabitants of the reef itself – and…
Wavelet art highlights the finer points of whale songs
OCR Advisor and software mathematician Mark Fisher received some recent coverage in Wired and Co.Design for his fantastic renderings of whale, dolphin, bird, and insect sounds using a diagnostic function called “wavelets.” Wavelets are typically used to evaluate large data…
The Effects of Oil and Gas Activities in the Arctic
I’ve just submitted our comments to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Supplemental Draft Environmental Impacts Statement (SDEIS) on the impacts of Oil and Gas operations in the Arctic. This is a “Supplemental” DEIS because it is built on a…
A foot in the door on seismic airgun surveys
On Friday a group of conservation interests lead by NRDC’s Michael Jasney landed a milestone decision on airgun survey regulation in the Gulf of Mexico. Seismic airgun survey – used to find oil and gas deposits are the one of…
Healthy Ocean = Sustainable Planet panel discussion
On Thursday June 13 I will be joining Ocean Conservancy’s Julia Roberson and fisheries conservationist Ken Hinman in a panel discussion moderated by Mark Spalding, President of the Ocean Foundation. The discussion will be available as a webcast at 4…
The Measure of Things
Quite a few years back we committed to assemble a compendium of “auditory thresholds” or hearing sensitivities of fish and marine mammals. The objective was to plot data from each family – fish, pinnepeds, dolphins, and porpoises on their own respective…