Sounds In The Sea

Publisher Description

Travel the world with the Sounds of Nature series – press the note in each of the 10 ocean habitats to hear vivid recordings of over 60 different marine animal sounds. The Sounds of Nature series brings the natural world to life with the sounds of real animals recorded in the wild. Captivating edge-to-edge illustrations show animals in action in their habitats around the globe. The animals are numbered in the order they can be heard, with fascinating facts and descriptions of the sounds they make, so you can listen out for each one. A speaker set into the back cover plays a sound clip when you press firmly on the note in each illustration. The battery is already installed, so simply open and explore. In World of Oceans, discover these amazing habitats: open ocean of the Pacific; frozen water of the Arctic; coral waters of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef; swamp waters of Florida, USA; a rockpool in Cornwall, UK; bay waters of San Francisco, USA; island waters of Indonesia, Asia; the deep sea of the Mariana Trench; coastal waters of Brazil, South America; and sandy coastline of Cape Town, Africa. Listen to these and more watery places come to life as you hear the: Booming snorts, roars and growls of the northern elephant seal (Pacific Ocean) Happy squeaks, chirps, whistles and clucks of the ghostly white beluga whales (Arctic Ocean) Angry hissing noise of a common snapping turtle warning off intruders (Florida swamp) Scuttling noise of a giant spider crab (Mariana Trench) High-pitched clicking sounds of poison dart frogs (Brazil) Loud splash of a great white shark as it falls back into the water (South Africa) Dip your toe in, hold your breath and get ready to plunge into the deep blue oceans that cover our planet!

An introduction to marine bioacoustics, the study of underwater sounds and hearing abilities of marine animals, and how man uses this knowledge.

A Science Friday Best Science Book of the Year A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Year A Library Journal Best Science and Technology Book of the Year A Tampa Bay Times Best Book of the Year A stunning history of seashells and the animals that make them that "will have you marveling at nature…Barnett’s account remarkably spirals out, appropriately, to become a much larger story about the sea, about global history and about environmental crises and preservation" (John Williams, New York Times Book Review). Seashells have been the most coveted and collected of nature’s creations since the dawn of humanity. They were money before coins, jewelry before gems, art before canvas. In The Sound of the Sea, acclaimed environmental author Cynthia Barnett blends cultural history and science to trace our long love affair with seashells and the hidden lives of the mollusks that make them. Spiraling out from the great cities of shell that once rose in North America to the warming waters of the Maldives and the slave castles of Ghana, Barnett has created an unforgettable history of our world through an examination of the unassuming seashell. She begins with their childhood wonder, unwinds surprising histories like the origin of Shell Oil as a family business importing exotic shells, and charts what shells and the soft animals that build them are telling scientists about our warming, acidifying seas. From the eerie calls of early shell trumpets to the evolutionary miracle of spines and spires and the modern science of carbon capture inspired by shell, Barnett circles to her central point of listening to nature’s wisdom—and acting on what seashells have to say about taking care of each other and our world.

Thirteen years have gone by since the first international meet ing on Animal Sonar Systems was held in Frascati, Italy, in 1966. Since that time, almost 900 papers have been published on its theme. The first symposium was vital as it was the starting point for new research lines whose goal was to design and develop technological systems with properties approaching optimal biological systems. There have been highly significant developments since then in all domains related to biological sonar systems and in their appli cations to the engineering field. The time had therefore come for a multidisciplinary integration of the information gathered, not only on the evolution of systems used in animal echolocation, but on systems theory, behavior and neurobiology, signal-to-noise ratio, masking, signal processing, and measures observed in certain species against animal sonar systems. Modern electronics technology and systems theory which have been developed only since 1974 now allow designing sophisticated sonar and radar systems applying principles derived from biological systems. At the time of the Frascati meeting, integrated circuits and technol ogies exploiting computer science were not well enough developed to yield advantages now possible through use of real-time analysis, leading to, among other things, a definition of target temporal char acteristics, as biological sonar systems are able to do. All of these new technical developments necessitate close co operation between engineers and biologists within the framework of new experiments which have been designed, particularly in the past five years.

For the 119 species of marine mammals, as well as for some other aquatic animals, sound is the primary means of learning about the environment and of communicating, navigating, and foraging. The possibility that human-generated noise could harm marine mammals or significantly interfere with their normal activities is an issue of increasing concern. Noise and its potential impacts have been regulated since the passage of the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972. Public awareness of the issue escalated in 1990s when researchers began using high-intensity sound to measure ocean climate changes. More recently, the stranding of beaked whales in proximity to Navy sonar use has again put the issue in the spotlight. Ocean Noise and Marine Mammals reviews sources of noise in the ocean environment, what is known of the responses of marine mammals to acoustic disturbance, and what models exist for describing ocean noise and marine mammal responses. Recommendations are made for future data gathering efforts, studies of marine mammal behavior and physiology, and modeling efforts necessary to determine what the long- and short-term impacts of ocean noise on marine mammals.

This volume reviews the current state of knowledge regarding the effects of low-frequency sound on marine mammals and makes recommendations for research. In addition, the book describes current federal regulations prescribed under the Marine Mammal Protection Act that govern the taking of marine mammals by scientific research activities, and it recommends changes to expedite the regulatory process dealing with scientific research activities.