26,110 research outputs found
Author Peter FitzSimons speaking at the National Library of Australia, Canberra, 13 November 2012 /
Title from acquisitions documentation.; Part of the collection: Portraits of author Peter FitzSimons speaking at the National Library of Australia, Canberra, 13 November 2012.; Acquired in digital format; access copy available online.; Mode of access: Online.; Photographed by a staff member of the National Library of Australia
Effective beam pattern of the Blainville's beaked whale (Mesoplodon densirostris) and implications for passive acoustic monitoring
This work was funded by two partners under the National Oceanographic Partnership Program: the Ocean Acoustics Program of the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service, Office of Protected Resources, and the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers Joint Industry Programme on Exploration and Production Sound and Marine Life. Research permits were issued to John Boreman (US NMFS 1121-1900), Peter Tyack (US NMFS 981-1578), and Ian Boyd (Bahamas permit #02/07). M.J. and P.T. are supported by the Marine Alliance for Science and Technology Scotland.The presence of beaked whales in mass-strandings coincident with navy maneuvers has prompted the development of methods to detect these cryptic animals. Blainville's beaked whales, Mesoplodon densirostris, produce distinctive echolocation clicks during long foraging dives making passive acoustic detection a possibility. However, performance of passive acoustic monitoring depends upon the source level, beam pattern, and clicking behavior of the whales. In this study, clicks recorded from Digital acoustic Tags (DTags) attached to four M. densirostris were linked to simultaneous recordings from an 82-hydrophone bottom-mounted array to derive the source level and beam pattern of the clicks, as steps towards estimating their detectability. The mean estimated on-axis apparent source level for the four whales was 201 dB(rms97). The mean 3 dB beamwidth and directivity index, estimated from sequences of clicks directed towards the far-field hydrophones, were 13 degrees and 23 dB, respectively. While searching for prey, Blainville's beaked whales scan their heads horizontally at a mean rate of 3.6 degrees/s over an angular range of some +/-10 degrees. Thus, while the DI indicates a narrow beam, the area of ensonification over a complete foraging dive is large given the combined effects of body and head movements associated with foraging. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1121/1.4776177]Peer reviewe
Vessel noise affects beaked whale behavior : results of a dedicated acoustic response study
© The Author(s), 2012. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in PLoS ONE 7 (2012): e42535, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0042535.Some beaked whale species are susceptible to the detrimental effects of anthropogenic noise. Most studies have
concentrated on the effects of military sonar, but other forms of acoustic disturbance (e.g. shipping noise) may disrupt
behavior. An experiment involving the exposure of target whale groups to intense vessel-generated noise tested how these
exposures influenced the foraging behavior of Blainville’s beaked whales (Mesoplodon densirostris) in the Tongue of the
Ocean (Bahamas). A military array of bottom-mounted hydrophones was used to measure the response based upon
changes in the spatial and temporal pattern of vocalizations. The archived acoustic data were used to compute metrics of
the echolocation-based foraging behavior for 16 targeted groups, 10 groups further away on the range, and 26 nonexposed
groups. The duration of foraging bouts was not significantly affected by the exposure. Changes in the hydrophone
over which the group was most frequently detected occurred as the animals moved around within a foraging bout, and
their number was significantly less the closer the whales were to the sound source. Non-exposed groups also had
significantly more changes in the primary hydrophone than exposed groups irrespective of distance. Our results suggested
that broadband ship noise caused a significant change in beaked whale behavior up to at least 5.2 kilometers away from
the vessel. The observed change could potentially correspond to a restriction in the movement of groups, a period of more
directional travel, a reduction in the number of individuals clicking within the group, or a response to changes in prey
movement.The research reported here was financially supported by the United States (U.S.) Office of Naval Research (www.onr.navy.mil) grants N00014-07-10988,
N00014-07-11023, N00014-08-10990; the U.S. Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (www.serdp.org) grant SI-1539, the Environmental
Readiness Division of the U.S. Navy (http://www.navy.mil/local/n45/), the U.S. Chief of Naval Operations Submarine Warfare Division (Undersea Surveillance), the
U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (National Marine Fisheries Service, Office of Science and Technology) (http://www.st.nmfs.noaa.gov/), U.S.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Ocean Acoustics Program (http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/acoustics/), and the Joint Industry Program on Sound
and Marine Life of the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (www.soundandmarinelife.org)
Moral Good, the Beatific Vision, and God’s Kingdom Writings by Germain Grisez and Peter Ryan, S.J.. Edited by Peter J. Weigel
For close to half a century, the work of Germain Grisez has been highly influential, and his writings continue to receive considerable attention from philosophers and theologians of diverse viewpoints. His co-author for this work is the professor and noted moral theologian Fr. Peter Ryan, S.J., currently the executive director of the Secretariat of Doctrine and Canonical Affairs of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). These two eminent scholars explore fundamental questions about Christian eschatology, moral theory, the purpose of human life, and the promise of human fulfilment. The authors examine Christian teaching on the final destiny of persons, investigating the meaning of God's kingdom, the hope of the beatific vision, and the centrality of moral goodness and divine grace in one's final end. This work is an ideal source for students, scholars, ministers and lay persons interested in basic questions of Christian theology, the philosophy of religion, ethical theory, and Catholic doctrin
Murder on the mountain: author talk with Peter J. Wosh
Author talk by Peter J. Wosh on May 5th, 2022, on his book, "Murder on the Mountain: crime, passion, and punishment in gilded age New Jersey.
Lunchtime Talk with Author and Attorney Peter Godwin
Author and attorney Peter Godwin gave a lunchtime talk about the topics discussed in his book, The Fear, which focuses on the human rights situation in Zimbabwe under the rule of Robert Mugabe
Echolocation : clicking for supper
When close to prey, porpoises actively widen their sonar beam, which may make it harder for the prey to escape.Peer reviewe
A digital acoustic recording tag for measuring the response of wild marine mammals to sound
Definitive studies on the response of marine mammals to anthropogenic sound are hampered by the short surface time and deep-diving lifestyle of many species. A novel archival tag, called the DTAG, has been developed to monitor the behavior of marine mammals, and their response to sound, continuously throughout the dive cycle. The tag contains a large array of solid-state memory and records continuously from a built-in hydrophone and suite of sensors. The sensors sample the orientation of the animal in three dimensions with sufficient speed and resolution to capture individual fluke strokes. Audio and sensor recording is synchronous so the relative timing of sounds and motion can be determined precisely. The DTAG has been attached to more than 30 northern right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) and 20 sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) with recording duration of up to 12 h per deployment. Several deployments have included sound playbacks to the tagged whale and a transient response to at least one playback is evident in the tag data.Peer reviewe
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