Press Room

Our website, AcousticEcology.org, is an unparalleled resource for issue updates and reliable background information. The site features a News Digest, science summaries, Special Reports, and extensive lists of research labs and advocacy organizations on all sides of the issues.
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Executive Director Jim Cummings is well-versed at helping to flesh out the shades-of-grey reality that is often rendered in stark black and white by interest groups on all sides of the story.

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Press Releases

02/08: Ocean Noise 2007 "Spotlight Report" Released - Scientific findings, policy developments, and key issues to watch in 2008. [SEE PRESS RELEASE] [READ REPORT ONLINE] [DOWNLOAD REPORT(doc)] [DOWNLOAD REPORT(pdf)]

02/07: Ocean Noise 2006 "Spotlight Report" Released - Scientific findings, policy developments, and key issues to watch in 2007. [SEE PRESS RELEASE] [READ REPORT ONLINE] [DOWNLOAD REPORT(doc)] [DOWNLOAD REPORT(pdf)]

Ocean Acoustics – Building an archive of research reports and conference proceedings addressing the ways that ocean environments are being studied through sound, and impacted by sound.  Educating the general public on basic issues related to ocean acoustics, in order to foster more informed public policy discussions. 

Media – Writing/editing an online News Digest [GO THERE] and Special Reports covering sound-related environmental issues, with active outreach to place stories in the press on these topics [GO THERE].  Maintaining News Archives on Ocean, Wildland, and Urban issues, and compiling resources useful to the media (links to advocacy groups across the policy spectrum, background on key issues, summaries of science findings).

Public Policy – Engaging in dialogue with public lands managers and agency personnel as they develop new regulations and management plans. Currently guest-editing a special edition of the Journal of International Wildlife Law on the subject of ocean noise. Providing contacts and links to advocacy organizations across the policy spectrum.

Education – Maintaining an online Educators’ Resource Center [GO THERE], with curriculum materials and access to broader acoustic ecology resources.  Presenting sound-awareness programs in classrooms, including a guessing game using recordings of nature, group discussions of sounds we encounter in our daily lives, sound walks, and sound mapping.

Science of Sound – Writing layman's summaries of recent field research [GO THERE]. Providing annotated coverage of upcoming and recent scientific conferences. In 2006, launching a new program focusing on creative presentations of scientific research, which engage the imagination and inform the public [GO THERE]. 

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 AEI Key Collaborative and Outreach Activities, 2004-7

• January 2004: Greenpeace USA released “Sonic Impacts,” a comprehensive report on the environmental effects of seismic surveys at sea; distributed to delegates at the UN Law of the Sea annual meeting.  This report was written under contract by AEI and has become a primary source for environmental groups worldwide. [MORE]
• April 2004: Co-founded the American Society for Acoustic Ecology, the long-anticipated US affiliate of the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology. AEI founder Jim Cummings elected first President of ASAE. [MORE]
• February-May 2004: Presented “Ears Wide Open” as part of Santa Fe public schools’ Partners in Education; 28 one-hour programs for classes and enrichment groups in grades 1 through 6.
• November 2004: Organized and moderated a panel on Ocean Noise at the 8^th International Wildlife Law Conference (New Orleans, LA); participants included the Director of the Marine Mammal Commission, the head of Columbia’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory marine science program, an NRDC lawyer, and an acoustician.
• February 2005: Collaborated with Western Soundscape Project (Boise, ID) to develop planning grant proposal for a library and museum-based western soundscape archive
• February-March 2005: AEI actively involved in scoping phase of National Marine Fisheries Service development of new ocean noise criteria; took lead in working to retain an approach that is based on current ambient noise levels, rather than hard-to-assess physical auditory damage.
• April 2005: Panelist at New Mexico Heritage Preservation Alliance conference, introduced Treasured Soundscapes of New Mexico.
• October 2004-May 2005: Organized an eight-event Acoustic Ecology lecture series, held at the College of Santa Fe. [MORE]
• May 2006: Presented a paper and sound installation at Sound, Environment, and Connective Technologies conference, University of California Riverside.
• June 2006: Featured speaker at Nature Sounds Society annual field weekend, Yuba Pass, California.
• Summer and fall 2007:  Guest-edited a special edition of the Journal of International Wildlife Law on the topic of ocean noise; pubication date, published as two issues.
• December 2007: Co-edited the 2007 volume of Soundscape, the journal of the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology; issue theme: Soundscape Art, Science, and Environmental Activism.

Partnerships and Collaborations

AEI is engaged in ongoing dialogue and exchange of expertise with many other organizations, including Winter Wildlands Alliance, NOAA/NMFS, Ocean Noise Coalition, Seaflow, National Park Service Soundscape Program, National Forest Service planners, Marine Mammal Commission, Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans, NRDC, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Chamber of Shipping of America, and researchers at academic institutions worldwide.

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Backgrounders

Backgrounder on Seismic Surveys at Sea - Seismic surveys using airguns, used to make loud sounds whose echoes can reveal oil and gas deposits beneath the sea floor, have gotten caught up in public concern about Naval active sonar injuring marine mammals. This backgrounder sketches the basics about airguns and seismic surveys, which do not have the clear association with marine mammal strandings that some sonars do, but remain major contributors to ocean noise.
[DOWNLOAD(doc)]

Ocean Acoustics - An AE.org online primer on the complexities that make intuitive understanding of sound underwater difficult for those of us used to air-based hearing. Includes sections on key topics, and links to other sites that explain ocean acoustics. [GO THERE]

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Reports