The paper I delivered at the Portland Acoustics Society meeting has been published through POMA in the proceedings. The presentation examines the value of using laboratory-derived hearing tests to establish noise exposure levels for wild animals in their natural habitat.…
Navy “Sparkle” and Propaganda – Evironmental “lawfare” threatens National Security
A vaguely academic article published in the “National Maritime Foundation: Advancing India’s Maritime Interests.” argues that environmental groups are actually agencies set up by adversarial governments to hobble the Navy’s readiness capabilities through environmental “lawfare.” see: http://www.maritimeindia.org/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=166 I’m sure that…
Minke Whales harassed by Navy Sonar
Yet another unfortunate event involving whales and mid-frequency sonar; two minke whales were seen “porpoising” at high speeds in waters where military operations were taking place. Observers also heard extremely loud sonar concurrent to the sightings. Minke whales are the…
Report from the May 2009 Acoustics Society meeting
“Thrilling” is not a word I thought I would ever use in describing an Acoustical Society meeting, but there were moments last week that bordered on just that. Driving this is an intersection of rapidly increasing computer processing power and…
Report from the Dept. of Fisheries and Oceans workshop
Spending the last two days in the company of geophysicists, marine mammologists, petroleum engineers and policy makers was much less grueling than I had anticipated. But the degree of collegiality was uncharacteristic of these affairs – to a point of…
Canada DFO intro
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…
This little blue marble
OCR Advisory Board member and ocean champion J. Nichols and “Her Deepness” Dr. Sylvia Earle have founded an organization predicted on a delightful premise. The organization is called “Bluemarbles.org” from the metaphor of the earth seen from space being likened…
5 Year Outer Continental Shelf leasing plan hearings
Last Thursday was the final public hearing on the 5 year Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) leasing program. While this was the last chance to stand up in public to express yourself about the program, it is not the last chance…
All hands on deck! April 16 public hearing in SF.
In the last months of the prior administration many changes occurred in our energy policies that could have a profound effect on the health of our oceans. First, the longstanding moratorium on offshore drilling lapsed. And secondly, in somewhat of…