I am spending this week in Washington DC in response to the recent announcement by the Obama Administration that offshore oil deposits will be evaluated for exploration and production. There has been (and will be) a series of public hearings…
Field Report from the Acoustics Society Meeting
I am spending the week in Baltimore, Maryland with a large aggregation of acousticians – perhaps 2000 folks, presenting papers and conferring about all matters acoustic. (A good collective pronoun might be a “treatment of acousticians…”) The field of acoustics…
OCR featured in National Geographic Online article
Last week after President Obama announced that offshore areas would be opened for oil exploration and extraction I received a call from National Geographic writer Marianne Lavelle. She was doing research for an article published online yesterday about seismic surveys.…
Navy files for “Incidental Take Permit” in the Gulf of Alaska
A few weeks back we submitted comments on the US Navy’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the expansion of Anti-submarine Warfare exercises in the Gulf of Alaska (GOA). The DEIS, at some 950 pages was very wordy, though we…
Gulf of Alaska and the US Navy Warfare Training Area
Yesterday was the deadline for public comments on the US Navy proposal to open up the Gulf of Alaska to Anti-submarine Warfare (ASW) exercises. We knew from the beginning that shenanigans were afoot because they opened up the mandatory 45…
NOAA calls for workshops on ocean noise mitigation
A letter from NOAA director Dr. Jane Lubchenco to Whitehouse CEQ Chair Nancy Sutley calls for a deeper look into mitigations on the impacts of ocean noise on marine life. While the letter focuses on understanding the problems and controversies…
Low level seismic survey noise interrupts Blue Whale calls
A recent publication by Lucia Di Lorio and Chris Clark reveals a significant difference in Blue Whale call behavior as a consequence of seismic survey noise generated by “sparkers” – an impulse generator which uses an electrical discharge spark to…
Mass Sperm Whale Stranding in Italy – Follow-up
A bit more information has come in on the sperm whales washed ashore on the Italian Gargano Peninsula a few weeks back. The necropsies have revealed that the animals had ingested large amounts of plastic – probably mistaking it for…
Mass Sperm Whale Stranding in Italy
Between December 10 and 11 seven sperm whales washed ashore on the Italian Gargano Peninsula. It has taken a few days to sort through the data and speculations. Necropsies are being performed by Sandro Mazzariol of Padova University. Mass strandings…