An Integrated Computer Controlled System For Marine Mammal Auditory Testing PDF Download

The long-term goals of this research are as follows: (1) to examine the hearing of as many marine mammals and species as possible to develop an understanding of the normal hearing capabilities of these mammals, and (2) to advance the technology for testing hearing in the laboratory and the field. The specific goal of this project is to build a rugged, field-ready, portable battery-operated system to use to measure the hearing capabilities of marine mammals in the lab, on ships, on the beach, or wherever we have the opportunity. The investigators intend to assemble equipment into a field-ready system, test the system in the laboratory, improve it with use, deploy it to stranded animal and field situations as they become available, and test the hearing of those marine mammals. Work completed: new suction cups and other electrodes were built and field-tested; combined equipment was taken to Portugal and tested on the Pilot whale; combined equipment was tested on the beach on the Pygmy killer whale and the striped dolphin; multiple equipment pieces were purchased, assembled, and reconfigured; new computer programs were written and tested; and audiograms were obtained for the long-finned pilot whale, the pygmy killer whale, and the striped dolphin. Of the 85 species of whales and dolphins, we now have basic hearing measurements on 16 species. The new equipment was used to gather hearing data on two new species in the past year. Many of our audiograms come from a single animal. This equipment will greatly assist in gathering information on what marine mammals hear. If Navy operations are stopped because of the effects of noise on whales, it is imperative that we have baseline information on marine mammal hearing.