SSS 2012-02-10

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That’s not a bird whistling. This sound was recorded 2000 feet below the ocean’s surface.

 

Scientists postulated¹ decades ago that deep-sea animals

 

might use sound to navigate² and communicate. But until now, no one had really tried to listen in.

 

That’s why marine³ ecologist Rodney Rountree, from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, decided⁴ to turn a few mp3 players into waterproof⁵, deep-sea recording⁶ devices. He and his colleagues attached one device to each of 100 crab⁷ traps, and sent them to the sea floor for 24 hours.

 

After dredging up the traps and listening to the recordings⁸, the team discovered a multitude of deep-sea sounds, including 12 they could not identify and which had probably never been heard before. 

 

Rountree wants to send down video cameras along with the recording devices, in order to identify which species are making these strange sounds. Just like a birder uses his eyes and his ears to study bird species, Rountree hopes that eventually ecologists will be able to use sound to locate and learn more about marine species.

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