Ears Wide Open

Current Activities Highlights

As usual, AEI's Board of Directors met during the transition to the new year, and I'm pleased to report that all members continue to be very supportive and helpful as we move to broaden the impact of our work. Steve Feld and David Dunn are here in Santa Fe, and offer ongoing advice and moral support, while Dave Mellinger contributes the much-needed field researcher's perspective, which is often especially useful at keeping me down to earth. This year, the main theme coming out of our discussion was that it is time to focus on spreading the word about the good work that the Institute has been doing. We'll be putting together quarterly updates to post to relevant academic listservs, exploring the opportunities that may be opening to provide reliable and concise information to congressional committee staffs, and working with Green Media Toolshed to introduce ourselves to journalists.

The press outreach will begin this month, built around our first annual AEI Ocean Noise Report, which summarizes key new research findings and regulatory developments from 2006 and provides a quick look at likely key stories for 2007. As with all of our Special Reports and Spotlight Reports, it aims to provide a solid ten-to-fifteen minute overview, with links to more in-depth information. You can read it online here. The key theme of the Report is the emergence of scientific and regulatory concern about the widespread effects of chronic exposure to moderate ocean noise; naval sonars are not the only, or even the most biologically significant, sources of human noise that we need to pay attention to. AEI is taking these warnings to heart, and plans to focus our ocean noise efforts on raising public awareness of the impacts of the rising tide of background noise and longer-range impacts of loud noise sources.

Other AEI Special Reports written in 2006:

• A summary of the annual International Whaling Commission Scientific Committee meeting, which this year featured a workshop on seismic surveys
• An overview of the "caucus statements" submitted by participants in the Marine Mammal Commission's Advisory Committee on Acoustic Impacts to Marine Mammals
• A look at the National Forest Service's Off-Road Vehicle travel management planning process, which is underway on a forest-by-forest basis (check with your local forests to get involved)
• Updates to existing reports on Active Sonars and Yellowstone snowmobile management

To read these and the rest of our Special Reports, follow this link.

And, of course, the AEI News Digest continues to track news stories related to sound and the environment, and we've increased our commitment to doing layman's summaries of key field research (during 2006, twenty-three studies were summarized; click here to read them and find archives from previous years). The other key area that always gets attention is commenting on management plans and permits; recent efforts have focused on the Navy's new environmental assessments of active sonar training missions and plans for an academic seismic survey in the fjords and intercoastal waters of British Columbia.

AEI Seeks (much-needed) Benefactors

If you find the resources being generated by AEI useful, or if you feel our commitment to providing accessible, in-depth information on the impacts of human noise on wild habitats is an important contribution in this time of ecological crisis, then I ask that you consider helping us to generate the support we need to continue this good work. You can help by renewing your membership, by making a larger contribution, or by pointing other possible benefactors our way.

The Institute is seeking funding to keep me on salary so all these balls can continue rolling.....in October, we received our first $10,000 donation, which has gotten me back on full-time salary. The Board of Directors is aiming to find 5-10 family foundations and individual benefactors who are sufficiently aligned with the Institute's mission and approach to offer annual pledges toward our modest annual budget of about $50,000.

We've set up a brokerage account that allows us to receive donations of publicly-held stocks; this option is especially useful for those who hold securities that carry large capital gains burdens, as the donation is credited at the full current value of the stock, with no capital gains tax imposed.

Thanks to AEI's collaborative relationships and role as a source of information and resources for other organizations, agencies, and researchers, support of our work pays dividends far beyond the concrete work done here. If you know someone who may like to support this work, we would be happy to send you a concise letter of introduction to pass on to them.

Ocean Noise and Ethics / Chronic Exposure to Moderate Noise in the Ocean

In August, I provided links to these two new essays as a members-only preview. I'd really like any feedback you may have on their tone and the direction that they imply. Does the more subjective or heartfelt tone enhance or undermine the other work the Institute is doing? Is the shift toward consideration of ethical dimensions of ocean noise one that holds promise for the Institute and/or the public, or is it too amorphous?

Over the past two years, as I've found myself drawn ever deeper into the world of ocean noise, I've often felt torn between the voice of reasoned analysis of the issues at play and the measurable effects of our noise on ocean creatures, and a desire to speak more from the heart about the underlying questions raised by humanity's habit of moving ahead, blindly (deafly?), in whatever direction we wish.

My broad exposure to environmental advocates, field researchers, industry perspectives, and agency staffers has led me to understand that the effects of ocean noise are not easily understood or dealt with. But more importantly, I've become convinced that the central focus of most of the debate is misplaced. The dramatic, and tragically avoidable, strandings of whales and dolphins after extreme noise exposure are, understandably but disconcertingly, dominating our attention, while other, more fundamental impacts and questions receive little notice. I am becoming increasingly concerned that these rare deaths are far less important to the health of the seas than the subtler, increasingly widespread exposure of ocean creatures to chronic, moderate levels of human noise. The stress reaction triggered when human noise causes difficulties in communicating or repeatedly makes animals move away from disturbing noise sources is likely weakening most ocean creatures, making them more susceptible to the witches brew of other human insults to their habitats, from toxins to warming oceans and diminishing food supplies. Recent research confirms that chronic ship noise increases stress in fish; the link between stress and impaired health has been confirmed in many animals (though not, to date, marine creatures).

I'll have much more to say about this need to address the subtler affects of noise in the months to come. Over the past few months, I've been working on a couple of essays that move beyond the journalistic tone of most AEI publications. In these, I acknowledge the underlying, oft-unspoken deeper questions that need to be asked, about whether we have the right to be making so much noise in this world. These questions quickly lead to some murky territory (what about national defense? can we really forego offshore oil and gas deposits?), but pretending things are simple is probably not going to help us in these difficult times.

In the hope of spurring some deeper consideration, I offer these two new essays. They are not in totally final form (in this electronic age, editing is never "done"!), and so I welcome any comments you may have.