PHOCUS Seal Research
University of California, Santa Cruz | 2023
Collaboration with researchers and Science Notes at UCSC
Illustrated for the Science Notes article, PHOCUSing on the Positive by Elise Overgaard.
“The task showed the research team how much energy Tunu [the seal] used per minute while resting in the water. They are also investigating how much energy Tunu uses to swim and dive in the pool, and to rest while hauled out. The information the team gathers through these studies will help them to predict how much extra energy it costs a seal to travel farther to find ice, or to survive if they can’t find ice at all.”
-Excerpt from PHOCUSing on the Positive by Elise Overgaard
“[Tunu] showed that he could easily hear frequencies from 0.6 to 11 kilohertz in air and from 0.3 to 56 kilohertz in water. His hearing was quite sensitive in both air and water, and it surprised the scientists. For reference, humans hear sounds from about 0.2 to 20 kilohertz in air.
Ocean surveyors use seismic air guns to explore oil and gas deposits underneath the Arctic seafloor. Air guns make big underwater sound waves, creating a noisy background that could make it harder for seals to communicate. So the team added air gun sounds to Tunu’s hearing trials, asking, “If the environment is noisy, can you still hear this sound?”
By performing the same task with air gun sounds blasting alongside the beeeeeeeep signal, Tunu told the researchers either, “Yes I can still hear it,” or, “Nope, can’t hear it now.”
NOAA will consider those results as they set limits for using seismic air guns in the Arctic.”
-Excerpt from PHOCUSing on the Positive by Elise Overgaard