A “sound” strategy for learning about fish:
(via A. Rice / The CornellLab)
Aaron Rice, of Cornell’s Bioacoustics Research Program, tracks fish populations and behavior. He does it using sound.
Rice: “The advantage of using sound as a survey method is that with digital recording technology that’s available now you can take a hydrophone, connect it to a essentially waterproof computer with a whole bunch of batteries and deploy it at the bottom of the lake let it record for six months to a year and then come back and start your analysis and so you have 24/7 audio coverage of a particular environment.”
Rice says this information can be used for things such as placing off-shore windfarms in areas where they would have a minimal impact on fish life.
Hear More:
Listen to Aaron Rice talk about the need for more bioacoustics research in the Great Lakes:
Get Schooled:
- Learn more about how passive acoustics can be used in fisheries, from MIT SeaGrant.
- Hear Aaron Rice talk more about marine bioacoustics in this video from CPNAS.
The Fine Print:
- This segment was produced with Cornell’s Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future.
