EARs

July 3^rd 2012

I met with Polly-Ann Fisherpool, a student of Dr. Marc Lammers from the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, UH Manoa Dept. of Biology. Dr. Lammers is also co-founder of the Oceanwide Science Institute (http://oceanwidescience.org/index.htm), a non-profit organization that supports marine conservation research and education. Marc is also head of the Acoustics Program in NOAA’s Coral Reef Ecosystem Division. Polly-Ann delivered Ecological Acoustic Recorders, commonly referred to their acronym EARs. Developed by the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology and NOAA, EARS are used for long-term monitoring of sounds in an area. EARs are used to monitor the presence and behavior of cetaceans (whales and dolphins), studying the acoustic signature of reef fishes and monitoring long-term biological sound patterns on coral reefs.  

 Here is a radio broadcast interview with researchers from the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology on the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. The use of EARs in reef ecology monitoring are discussed in a segment. Keeping things related to sharks, there is a mention of a notable shark encounter by one student. Click the link to listen: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/science-sushi/2012/05/26/himb-on-the-radio/ 

You can also view publications of studies that used EARs for long-term acoustic monitoring here: http://oceanwidescience.org/docs/Publications.htm

EAR that is almost ready for deployment. Coating the instrument with tape makes it easier to cleaning the bio-fouling off when the EAR is retrieved a year later.

You can also look at the HIMB Marine Mammal Research Program’s website to learn more about the studies done on marine mammal acoustics and acoustic monitoring: http://www.hawaii.edu/mmrp/MMRP_Hawaii/Home.html

Similar to how our team deploys and retrieves VRW2 acoustic receivers, each EAR that was loaded onto the ship is labeled for each location it will be deployed and they will replace the EARs that are currently deployed at each location throughout the NWHI. Some of these instruments have been deployed for over a year; they have to be retrieved in order to download the data they gather. 

Inside the ship's wetlab