Thirty years of Australian marine bioacoustics and the Cummings connection

Abstract

Marine bioacoustics research in Australian waters has developed for more than 30 years, and has revealed a wide diversity of sounds and acoustic environments. The number of researchers and the complexity of the experiments has increased over the years. In the early days we had little knowledge or experience, and so relied on advice and help from American researchers. Of those, Dr. William C. Cummings remains one of our greatest supporters. This paper reviews some of the main features of the Australian work and the Cummings influence. Some of the earliest work, on fish sounds, echoes his work of the 1960s. This has since developed substantially, and we are planning to apply methods developed by Cummings of combined video and acoustic observation to source identification. Humpback whale sounds have been studied continually for more than 20 years and have revealed the complex songs of similar overall structure to those of the northern hemisphere, but with some surprises. Recordings have been made of southern right whales and Antarctic seals, and this year we recorded a large set of diverse sounds from blue whales. This data set and visual / acoustic observations of humpback whales are being used in censusing.