The BRS field team was back out in the R/V Barber on Sunday, July 14 to deploy more satellite tags on goose-beaked whales (Ziphius cavirostris) prior to our Controlled Exposure Experiment (CEE) trial with a Navy destroyer later this month. Seas were lumpy at the beginning of the trip but […]
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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 […]
In a letter recently published in the journal Marine Mammal Science, we call on the marine mammal science community to discard the use of the English common name “Cuvier’s beaked whale” for Ziphius cavirostris. Instead, we recommend adoption of the alternative English common name for this species, the goose-beaked whale. We make this […]
The Read Lab was part of a successful disentanglement effort led by personnel from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and the Florida Fish & Wildlife Commission to remove Canadian lobster gear from adult male right whale Argo off Frying Pan Shoals in late January. Read the full story here.
On December 22, the U.S. Senate confirmed Andy’s appointment to the Marine Mammal Commission by unanimous consent. Andy joins his fellow nominee, Dr. Sue Moore, and Commission Chair Dr. Frances Gulland as the three Commissioners. See the news story here.
On July 30, we conducted a successful Controlled Exposure Experiment (CEE) with thirteen satellite-tagged Cuvier’s beaked whales Ziphius cavirostris, off Cape Hatteras. These whales were exposed to Mid-Frequency Active Sonar (MFAS) signals in a highly controlled experimental setting. The MFAS signals were produced by the USS Farragut, a guided missile destroyer […]
After a long wait for good weather and engine repairs to the R/V Richard T. Barber, we were very excited to kick off the first round of tag deployments for the 2021 Atlantic Behavioral Response Study (BRS). It felt great to be back in the field and we made the […]
On Wednesday, July 16th we completed a successful experimental playback of Mid-Frequency Active Sonar (MFAS) signals to an adult male Cuvier’s beaked whale off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, as part of the Atlantic Behavioral Response study. This work is designed to improve our understanding of how these acoustically sensitive whales respond […]
The first field season of our 2019 Atlantic Behavioral Response Study (BRS) is underway. The primary objective of our field work is to examine the behavioral response of Cuvier’s beaked whales to tactical mid-frequency active sonar (MFAS) signals. We use Controlled Exposure Experiments (CEEs), in which the received levels of […]
During the past week we finished deploying satellite tags for the first leg of the 2018 Atlantic Behavioral Response (BRS) study. Then we conducted our first Controlled Exposure Experiment (CEE) with a mid-frequency sonar system deployed from a Navy destroyer. We also conducted another CEE with our scaled sound source, […]