Nor­way: Ocean Sounds

Whales play an es­sen­tial role in the con­ser­va­tion of the mar­ine eco­sys­tem. When we pro­tect whales, we also pro­tect the ocean and thus our own sur­vival. Whales act as a food pump for plank­ton by trans­port­ing nu­tri­ents from the deep to the sur­face and thus fer­til­iz­ing plank­ton. Phyto­plank­ton binds CO2 and pro­duces oxy­gen and whales sup­port half of the total oxy­gen pro­duc­tion on earth.

For whales and dol­phins, sound is the most im­port­ant sens­ory in­form­a­tion un­der wa­ter. It en­ables them to “see” un­der­wa­ter via echo­loca­tion and it is only through their com­plex com­mu­nic­a­tion that whales and dol­phins can live to­gether in such com­plex so­ci­et­ies. Large whales com­mu­nic­ate with each other over thou­sands of kilo­met­ers.

One of our main mis­sions is to edu­cate stu­dents out­side the uni­versity cur­riculum so that we can ex­pand know­ledge, prac­tical ap­plic­a­tion and solu­tions to prob­lems. In ad­di­tion to prac­tical field work, the cen­ter in the port of Bodø, Nor­way, provides ba­sic equip­ment for this task.

We have three bio­logy stu­dents from Nord Uni in Bodø who are help­ing us this semester. They keep the cen­ter open for vis­it­ors and also in­form some tour­ists, es­pe­cially in sum­mer, be­cause the pop­u­lar whale watch­ing can stress the an­im­als more than is good. At the Cen­ter, we present our whale sound lib­rary with a quiz.

A Bach­el­or's stu­dent is con­duct­ing lit­er­at­ure re­search on the tox­ic­o­logy of mar­ine mam­mals and sharks.
A Mas­ter's stu­dent will be writ­ing a Mas­ter's thesis on pos­sible mar­ine pro­tec­ted areas for whales in the Vest­f­jord here in Bodø in 2024.
A Mas­ter's stu­dent will work on his vir­tual art pro­ject about whales and noise and present it in Bodø.
Two fu­ture Bach­el­or's stu­dents want to write their Bach­el­or's theses in fall 2024 on the topic of photo-ID and acous­tics in local orca groups.

Our main task is ex­cur­sions by boat in the Vest­f­jord. From April to Oc­to­ber we carry out our re­search there as well as between the is­lands and on the Lo­foten Is­lands. Since 2005 we have been col­lect­ing data on the oc­cur­rence of whale and dol­phin spe­cies, cre­at­ing a photo-ID data­base to identify the an­im­als and re­search­ing their acous­tics and com­mu­nic­a­tion. So far we have ren­ted a small boat for this pur­pose, but due to the chal­len­ging weather con­di­tions we would have to use much more sea­worthy vehicles, the fin­an­cing of which is still prob­lem­atic.