Hi, I'm Jenni Stanley and I'm a marine ecologist
specializing in underwater soundscape ecology
at Northeast Fisheries Science Center and
Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary.
Underwater organisms use sound for communication.
This is especially important in places
like Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary
where it's deep and dark
and the visual cues are not as readily available.
Today we're deploying two sound traps, they're small remote
recording units, to record over a
complete lunar cycle the ambient
soundscapes at two locations within
Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary.
The main things that we are
expecting to hear within our sites is
the noise produced by soniferous fishes,
that is fishes that makes sound,
and also invertebrates and the odd
passing marine mammal. As well as
biological, we'll also get a lot of
anthropogenic noise from passing
commercial vessels using the Boston
commercial vessel line.
Depending where you are, you get a very different makeup
of a soundscape because of what's making
the sound at that location.
Marine organisms make a lot of noise underwater
and we don't really understand the full
extent of how noise may interfere with
these really important communication channels.
But we're planning to continue
this project to all four seasons of the year
for a complete lunar phase.