LISTENING 


DOWN DEEP 

an excerpt from the latest issue of NatureWILD Magazine

Pacific Wild is a wildlife conservation organization that is using hydrophones (underwater microphones) to listen to the sounds of the ocean. They have set up a network of four hydrophone stations, spread out over BC’s central coast, which pick up and transmit sounds from below the sea. At the Pacific Wild headquarters near Bella Bella the sound team listens for marine life. This past year they heard dolphins, humpback whales, killer whales, and an earthquake! 

You can read more about Listening Down Deep by Max Bakken in the latest issue of NatureWILD. Max has also shared a spectrogram (below) of humpback whales singing. He provides a good explanation of the use of the spectrogram in the youtube video. Thanks Max!

Author and photographer Max Bakken is the Remote Operations Technician at Pacific Wild, where he designs and installs the central coast hydrophone network. He encountered his first whale at age five, when a beluga at the Vancouver Aquarium spat on him. Since then he has spent much of his life at sea as a photographer, whale watching guide, and fisherman. 

Want to hear more?

The hydrophone network broadcasts are live on the internet so if you would like to hear the humpback whales sing, tune into their hydrophones here...