Cetacean Communication

Part one of an interview with Dr. Fred Sharpe that includes some technical ramblings from me. See below to listen.

Over the decades, I've taught many training courses on hydrophone operation and underwater sound analysis. These classes were always focused on Cetacean Research Technology hydrophones that I had designed, manufactured, and sold. Now that I no longer build hydrophones, I haven't taught any classes and I miss that! I would love to teach more classes on underwater recording and/or sound analysis, and rather than deciding exactly what the courses would entail by myself, I'd like to hear from you what you'd like to learn. Please let me know in the comments.
Also, any class I teach will be in person. We learn so much better that way, and I've run online training sessions since long before it became the post-pandemic standard and I'm no longer interested in doing that.

Throwback to 13 years ago when I designed and built this directional stereo hydrophone with the help of .
Nine year old shown for scale 🙂 and he also filmed the assembly and operating video I narrated for the customer.

The oldest recording of a humpback whale from 1949. There's a link in the beginning of the article to the recording.

WHOI Discovers the Oldest Known Whale Recordings, Dating to 1949 | Newswise WHOI researchers and archivists have identified what may be the earliest preserved recording of a whale: the song of a humpback, captured on March 7, 1949, near Bermuda.

Just came across this photo, taken 20 years ago today, of a hydrophone I was building.

Throw back to ten years ago on this day at the Society for Marine Mammalogy conference in San Francisco. Who can identify all the Cetacean Research Technology hydrophones and other acoustic instrumentation displayed on our table?

Testing the flow noise of a suction-cup-attached acoustic tag three weeks ago during a bit of a break in the rain on a very blustery Sunday. This newly modified CATS tag uses a custom Cetacean Research Technology CR3 hydrophone.

Fred Sharpe presented a talk to a packed theater in Port Townsend today about his years of research on humpback whales. The presentation included the work and I have assisted with over the past two summers at the Five Finger Lighthouse in Frederick Sound. It's very impressive to hear the sound of humpback thrums through the theater's sound system.
I also want to publicly thank Jack's mom for the cookies! 🍪🤎🙂

Here's a short video describing the Humpback Whale Aerial Signals Project that I've been assisting with for the past two summers.

Humpback Whale Aerial Signals Project Since 2024, the Humpback Whale Aerial Signals Project has operated from the Five Finger Lighthouse in Frederick Sound, Alaska to collect acoustic and observa...