Our team explores wonders of ocean life that are uniquely accessible through sound.

Sound travels powerfully through the sea, over much greater distances than light. This aspect of nature has been integrated by evolution into the lives of animals that use sound in their essential life activities — communicating, foraging, reproducing, socializing, and navigating a vast and largely dark world. Sound recordings capture the signatures of these life activities, thereby revealing animal presence and behavior. Together with environmental observations, sound recordings open a window into the complex and wonderful ecology of diverse species.

Exploration of the ocean soundscape is also essential to stewardship. Because many ocean animals rely on sound for life, noise from human activities can be detrimental. The protection of acoustic habitat is an emerging dimension of ocean health, and it requires understanding the nature and severity of noise pollution. The same recordings that reveal the wonders of ocean life also reveal the anthropogenic noise imprint, as a foundation for informing management and mitigation. Sound analysis can also inform protection of endangered species, like blue whales, that face risks from collision with large ships along the pathways of their movement as they forage and migrate.

Toward enabling human connection to ocean life, this project develops open-source public exhibits that allow people to hear, see, and feel the ocean soundscape.