The Cordell Bank NMS research coordinator Danielle Lipski and colleagues have deployed an acoustic recording device in the Sanctuary waters as part of a two year study on ocean noise. The CBNMS placement is 1 of 11 in the seas around North America and Hawaii, including the Gulf of Mexico and arctic Alaska. Global shipping generates noises from engines and propellers. Whales and other ocean-dwelling animals create sounds as well that may be used to identify them. There is some concern that human noise may obscure natural sounds and disturb or confuse ocean life. The acoustic listening devices will record sound continuously for two years when they will be recovered and the sounds studied by Sanctuary scientists and their colleagues. Details on the mooring deployment are in this article published by the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.
