Effects of sonar upon lower level aquatic life forms

[wukawa453]

Hi I'm currently working on a research project studying the effects of SONAR upon marine life. I read
that much of the sea life is being harmed by the effects of sonar. Originally i wanted to test dolphins
and whales, however that idea seemed highly implausible. I asked my research adviser and he suggested
that i research the effects of sonar on lower life forms such as shrimp or krill. I was wondering
what equipment was necessary for me to research. And is finding a sonar machine for my project
feasible? If not, how could i modify my topic to find a more feasible research topic. Thank you
for your time.

[barretttomlinson]

Hi,

Here are articles that support your interest in marine mammals:

http://www.oceanleadership.org/node/1689

http://www.eurocbc.org/sonar_lfas_impli ... e1253.html


Here are reports of how shrimp make noise that competes with sonar:

http://www.scienceblog.com/community/ol ... 00048.html

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=snapping-shrimp

http://www.umainetoday.umaine.edu/issue ... ights.html

Some thoughts:

The sonars thought to cause harm to mammals are extremely powerful(like they would be painful to hear even if you were several miles away) and very expensive. Your only hope(my guess) to get any sort of access would be to somehow study the effects while the Navy was testing them(which I am guessing is extremely unlikely). I suspect you would not see effects you could measure from ordinary sonar devices like depth sounders or fish finders. You might have luck looking into the natural sounds made by shrimp or other creatures - this seems to be a subject of some interest to the scientific community. You could study this with a hydrophone, a sort of underwater microphone, which should not be too hard to find.(search google for hydrophone for example). Were you hoping to do field research, like making observations in the ocean or a lake, or a lab experiment? It sounds like the ideal situation would be to find a university based research mentor who is doing field work, and possibly do an internship with him/her if you could. In your shoes I think I would try to get access to a university library and do some serious reading in the area of your interests. That might tell you who and where work is being done that interests you, and give you an idea of what you want to do.

This sounds like a really fun project to explore, but also one that is going to take quite a bit more effort than the average science fair project. I wish you every success!!!

Best regards,

Barrett Tomlinson

[barretttomlinson]

Hi,

I found this thesis that sounded like it might be useful to you in identifying experimental methods of studying marine creatures use and reaction to sound:

http://etd.lib.fsu.edu/theses/available ... thesis.pdf

It discusses echolocation, socialization, and other interactions between fish and marine mammals, and surveys useful literature. I found it interesting in the context of your interests.

I hope it helps!

Best wishes,

Barrett Tomlinson

[HeatherL]

Hi wukawa,

The topic of sonar and cetaceans (whales and dolphins) is a very hot topic in current marine mammal research! One of the current hypotheses is that it is not the sonar itself that harms the animals, but the fact that they are scared and swim to the surface very quickly. For example, the following article deals with this in a very technical way: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_o ... d82f20a337

Here is an undergraduate honors thesis examining the effects of sonar on cetaceans in Australia:
http://internal.physics.uwa.edu.au/~woo ... hesis.html

Try searching "sonar and cetaceans" in Google Scholar if you still want to pursue the topic from a marine mammal perspective.

However, I think the advice you were given to look at smaller organisms is still a good one. You can see whether the animals are physically harmed by the sonar, or whether it scares them into changing their behavior. Either situation could cause harm to animals in the ocean.

Please let us know how your project progresses!

Cheers,
Heather

[staryl13]

Hi!
There have been some great suggestions, but I just want to add one more thing. Many local science fairs have rules pertaining to the "harm" caused to experimental specimens, so please check with your teacher to make sure it is feasible for you to conduct such a project. I think it's a great idea and definitely check out some of the links posted in this thread..Good luck!!

[HeatherL]

Hi wukawa,

I imagine that you will pursue a project looking at species that you can handle in a laboratory, but I thought the following information might be of interest to you.

A new paper on beaked whale sensitivity to acoustic pingers has just
been published in Marine Mammal Science:

Carretta, J.V., J. Barlow, and L. Enriquez. 2008. Acoustic pingers
eliminate beaked whale bycatch in a gill net fishery. Marine Mammal
Science 24(4):956-961.

The results have implications on the current debate about the effects of
Navy sonar on beaked whales, which was highlighted most recently in U.S.
Supreme Court proceedings. In summary, we found that the use of
acoustic pingers in a gillnet fishery completely eliminated the bycatch
of beaked whales, whereas other cetacean species continued to be caught,
though at much lower levels than they were before pinger use. The two
main conclusions are 1) that beaked whales are much more sensitivie to
acoustic pingers (and perhaps other anthropogenic sounds) than other
cetacean species and 2) this finding highlights recent concerns about
potential threats that some sound sources (such as sonars) may pose to
beaked whales.

Cheers,
Heather