Marine bioacoustics

Abstract

The marine environment is the planet's largest, yet in many respects the least accessible. Our human sensory repertoire, with its emphasis on vision and air-adapted hearing, does not serve us well underwater. Underwater vision is often limited and as divers we find hearing of little, or no, use. Yet we know from the physics that underwater sound has properties well suited to serve as sensory and communication channels for suitably-adapted marine animals. The rapidly developing area of marine bioacoustics seeks to characterise underwater sound in relation to the acoustic capability of particular species (acoustic habitat), and discover the role of acoustics in the lives of marine animals (acoustic ecology) (Clarke et al., 2011).