Research that sends sound
underwater resumes off Kauai

Some worry the noise could
hurt whales and other marine life

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Star-Bulletin staff

An experiment to study ocean temperatures with sound transmissions over long distances has resumed about eight miles north of Kauai.

The Scripps Institution of Oceanography's North Pacific Acoustic Laboratory received final approval from the Navy on Jan. 23 for the Acoustic Thermometry of Ocean Climate (ATOC) Project.

The first acoustic transmission occurred the next day. Testing generally will be done every four days, with six 20-minute transmissions in one day.

The project has aroused concerns about effects of the underwater sounds on humpback whales.

But scientists who participated in two years of preliminary experiments found no significant effects on whales or other species when sounds were transmitted, University of Hawaii professor Joe Mobley has reported.

Aerial surveys to study the distribution and abundance of humpbacks and other marine life in the vicinity of the sound source when it's working are scheduled to begin Saturday.

Scripps is paying for eight aerial observations of marine animals each year during the experiment.

Among other goals, the five-year project is studying the feasibility and value of large-scale acoustic thermometry, the behavior of sound transmissions in the ocean and possible long-term effects on marine life .

The Office of Naval Research is funding the project, conducted by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, with the Applied Physics Laboratory of the University of Washington.

The state Department of Land and Natural Resources approved the project Oct. 26 and the National Marine Fisheries Service authorized it on Jan. 15.