Every day working on pelagic cetaceans off Cape Hatteras is interesting and we seldom have a field day without learning something new. On Saturday, August 1st we were planning to conduct a Controlled Exposure Trial with simulated Continuous Active Sonar (CAS) signals played by our custom sound source to several tagged […]
Andrew Read, Ph.D.
104 posts
We had an extremely productive day on Friday, July 17th. The R/V Shearwater departed from Beaufort on the afternoon of the 16th and steamed overnight to the shelf break off Cape Hatteras. The tagging crew was on the R/V Barber, and transited from Oregon Inlet at first light on Friday morning. The two […]
After waiting patiently for some calm offshore weather, we finally had a good start to the 2026 Atlantic BRS field season this week. We were able to spend two full days at our field site 40 nautical miles off Cape Hatteras and encountered a large number of goose-beaked whales, our […]
We are proud to report the publication of our paper “Behavioral responses of goose-beaked whales (Ziphius cavirostris) to simulated military sonar” in the journal Ecosphere. You can access the full text of the open access paper, led by Brandon Southall, here. The paper reports the results of a set of complex […]
On Friday, September 19th we conducted a Controlled Exposure Experiment (CEE) trial with goose-beaked whales Ziphius cavirostris in our study area off Cape Hatteras. Our focal whale was ZcTag161, an adult male equipped with a satellite-linked dive recorder on September 4th. The focal whale was accompanied by three other goose-beaked whales […]
On Saturday, July 19th, we conducted a Controlled Exposure Trial with the USS Donald Cook, a Navy guided missile destroyer based in Mayport, Florida. The trial involved playing Continuous Active Sonar (CAS) signals from the destroyer to a constellation of eight satellite-tagged beaked whales off Cape Hatteras. We used real-time […]
We were very fortunate to have three good days of offshore weather off Cape Hatteras over this past weekend – some of the nicest conditions we have seen in a long time. Monday was particularly good, with mirror-like conditions for much of the morning. Days like this can be few […]
Field work for the 2025 Atlantic Behavioral Response Study (BRS) is underway. Our field team was on the water Saturday and Sunday, June 21-22, to deploy satellite-linked transmitters on goose-beaked whales Ziphius cavirostris. Our first scheduled Controlled Exposure Experiment (CEE) trial is a month away, so our task this weekend was […]
Our crew on the R/V Shearwater had a very busy day on Sunday, July 21st. We started at first light by deploying a High Frequency Recording Package (HARP) in our study area off Cape Hatteras. We deployed the HARP in a depth of about 1,000 m – it will record the vocalizations of goose-beaked whales […]
We’ve kicked off the field season for the 2024 Atlantic Behavioral Response Study (BRS)! On June 20th, our crew of five drove up to Manteo, NC with the R/V Barber, our 30’ research vessel, in tow. By first light the following day, we were headed out to sea with a […]