Sanctuary
Summits - Stellwagen Bank
General
Information
About
Sylvia Earle
Post-Summit
Summary
General
Information
Date:
July 9, 1999
Location: Gloucester, MA
Participants: Students from the American
School for the Deaf
Theme: Underwater Acoustics
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Whales
communicating to each other is probably a
large part of the underwater noises at the
Stellwagen Bank National Marine
Sanctuary.
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Dr. Sylvia Earle will meet
with the high school students/researchers from the
American School for the Deaf to discuss the
Sustainable Seas Expeditions and to discuss
underwater acoustics. After the summit, the
students will be heading out to the Stellwagen Bank
National Marine Sanctuary to participate in studies
of sound in the sanctuary. Students and teachers
will be studying background noise levels and whale
behaviors using hydrophone recordings and visual
displays of data.
The
American School for the Deaf
(ASD) is the oldest
school for deaf people in the United States and is
also the birthplace of American Sign Language
(ASL). The school offers a broad range of programs
to meet the varied needs of deaf infants, children,
youth and adults. One of the programs for high
school students is the National Undersea Research
Center's "Aquanaut" program, designed to encourage
students to study oceanography.
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About
Sylvia Earle
Sylvia
Earle
National Geographic Society
Marine biologist Sylvia Earle
is Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic
Society, a position she has held since 1998. She is
working with a variety of Society divisions on
projects involving her passion -oceans - especially
serving as project director of Sustainable Seas
Expeditions and writing three books for publication
in 1999.
Named one of Time Magazine's
"heroes for the planet" in 1998, Earle has
pioneered research on marine ecosystems and has led
more than 50 expeditions totaling 6,000 hours
underwater. She holds numerous diving records and
is the author of more than 100 scientific and
popular publications, including a 1995 book "Sea
Change."
Earle was born August 30,
1935, in Gibbstown, NJ. She has a bachelor's degree
from Florida State University and a master's and
doctorate from Duke University as well as nine
honorary doctorate degrees. She lives in Oakland,
California.
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Post-Summit Summary
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Dr. Sylvia
Earle introduces herself to two students
from the American School for the Deaf who
will be doing acoustic studies in the
sanctuary.
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On July 9th, Dr. Sylvia Earle joined 2
students from the American School for the Deaf in
studying the impacts of noise on whales in the
Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. Students
from the school will begin a five-day expedition
into the sanctuary to study impacts of noise
pollution on whale behavior, determine levels of
background noise in the sanctuary and look at day
vs. night differences in noise in the sanctuary.
The students are using a hydrophone to collect
sound within a mile radius of the research vessel,
MIMI. Specialized visualization software allows the
students to "see" the sound on a computer screen on
board the ship.
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The
research vessel, MIMI is famous for the
video series and middle school curriculum
entitled "Voyage of the MIMI".
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On their way out to Stellwagen on the 9th, the
MIMI reported being surrounded by humpback whales.
One breached, others spouted and circled in to get
a closer look. Several came within 50 ft of the
MIMI. The students will be out in the sanctuary
during most of the Sustainable Seas Expedition in
Stellwagen and their studies will complement what
the scientists are learning with the DeepWorker
submersibles. This project is supported by NOAA's
National Undersea Research Program.
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For more information on the Sanctuary Summit at the
Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, please
contact:
Anne Smrcina, Education
Coordinator
Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary
(781) 545-8026
anne.smrcina@noaa.gov
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