They are the hulking giants of the sea, able to send their songs thousands of kilometres under the waves, but researchers still have little idea of how much whales can hear — and they are determined to find out.
Scientists from the University of Queensland have spent the past two whale migration seasons armed with a long pole, which they use to stick a small sucker-covered box to the side of humpbacks as they pass the coastline south of Noosa.
Associate Professor Rebecca Dunlop said it could be daunting reaching out a stick towards a creature weighing 30 tonnes.
“It can be confronting — that’s a good way of putting it,” Dr Dunlop said.
“You need to get extremely close, and you put a suction cup acoustic tag on using a long pole.
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In 2017, Dr Dunlop was part of a team that discovered air guns used for marine exploration were loud enough to affect humpback whales up to three kilometres away, potentially changing their movement patterns as they migrate.
“The ocean is a very noisy place, particularly with oil and gas exploration and naval sonar,” Dr Dunlop said.
“We have a lot to learn about how these sources of noise affect whales.
“Does it stop them feeding or breeding, or is it responsible for mass beaching for example?”
Dr Dunlop’s research is used to inform government policy, particularly in the United States.
“The US usually leads in this area with decision makers using our results to develop their policies, then other countries use these as guidelines to form their own policies,” she said.
“We don’t know the hearing range of any species of baleen whale, what frequency range they hear, or how sensitive they are at each frequency.
“At the end of this research, we’ll have a lot more data and be able to use it to inform current mitigation measures around noise in the ocean.”
It sounds easy enough, but the field work is demanding.
* full story is https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-26/whale-hearing-tested-qld-uq-research-protect-from-human-noises/101697476 & https://www.uq.edu.au
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