An ‘Orca-stra’ of Science and Sound: The Reverberations of Northeast Pacific Whales and How We’re Helping People Understand Them Though Games, Demos and Listening

Abstract:

Presented by the Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) Leaning and Engagement team, this demonstration focuses on our strategy for engaging and inspiring the next generation of ocean advocates by introducing them to one of the ocean’s most charismatic inhabitants: marine mammals (and don’t worry, we don’t need any tanks or neoprene suits to do it). Using bioacoustic data, we can bring the essence of the animals with us.

ONC, an initiative of the University of Victoria, operates cabled ocean observatories which supply continuous power and Internet connectivity to a broad suite of subsea instruments from the coast to the deep sea. This Internet connectivity permits researchers, students and members of the public to download freely available data onto their computers from anywhere around the globe, in real-time.

Our demo focuses on the story of bioacoustics from instrument to animal. When visiting classrooms or hosting booths, we enhance user knowledge and experience by connecting familiar animals with their acoustic data from hydrophones. This includes listening to hydrophone clips collected from the network, analyzing sounds using interactive, real-time software and playing interactive games designed to get participants thinking like a scientist and taking a whale’s perspective. For example, participants listen to recordings and guess the sound, identify frequencies and try a working hydrophone.

The presentation consists of a suite of activities that meet a broad range of Next Generation Science Standards and includes links to the SoundCloud, https://soundcloud.com/oceannetworkscanada the ONC hydrophone FAQ, http://www.oceannetworks.ca/smart-hydrophone-faq and a classroom ready resource, Shouting Whales http://openschool.bc.ca/shouting_whales/index.html . The included links allow users anywhere to have a similar whale “experience” as the data are classroom ready, accessible and free.