History of bioacoustics research on aquatic and marine organisms in Hawaii

Abstract

Modern bioacoustic research with aquatic animals began in Hawaii in the 1968–1969 period when three independent programs started almost simultaneously. Two faculty members began studying various facets of hearing in fish at the University of Hawaii. Another faculty member from a different department established a laboratory in which dolphin hearing and echolocation were among some of the topics studied. The Navy started a dolphin facility to train dolphins to perform Navy related tasks. The Navy program also included research on dolphin echolocation including a study comparing the performance of two dolphins and a Straza-500 CTFM sonar in target detection. The Navy facility closed in 1993 but some of the bioacoustics research was transferred to the University’s Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology on Coconut Island about a mile from the former Navy facility in the same bay. The HIMB program expanded into field research with spinner dolphins and humpback whales, and passive acoustic monitoring of marine organisms. The local National Marine Fisheries Service of NOAA became a close partner in the PAM development and studies. This presentation will focus of the bioacoustic research performed with marine mammals highlighting some of the more important findings and contributions to the field.