Double MOCHA workshop at the WMMC

Saana Isojunno and Catriona Harris will be running a workshop at the WMMC in December in Barcelona: “Developing the next generation framework for modeling marine mammal responses to noise: a workshop to identify key elements for future models“.  Sunday, December 8 – 0830-1730

See WMMC workshop webpage for registration details.

Workshop Summary: This interactive workshop will discuss how marine mammal responses to noise could be modeled in the future to reduce uncertainty in dose-response, better capture biological significance and improve estimates of impact.  We will explore what context variables may be most relevant to consider versus practical to measure and may improve upon noise impact assessments that rely on acoustic exposure alone as the dose parameter. Variables include, but are not limited to: noise source features (e.g., source level, frequency, range), environmental context (e.g., prey availability) and animal context (e.g., reproductive status, group size, behavior, hearing group). We will have short invited presentations on  current, and potential future, behavior response modelling approaches, followed by group activities to share expertise and derive conceptual frameworks for ‘next generation’ response models. These frameworks could consider e.g., auditory processing, animal cognition, optimal foraging, the risk-disturbance hypothesis, and links to population-level consequences. Provisional schedule of the full-day workshop: Morning: introduction & invited presentations, which will include a review of current approaches and context variables in behaviour response modelling Breaks: mini poster session (participants invited to submit 100 word abstract for posters) Afternoon: group activities and open discussion to derive future conceptual models Outputs will inform the Double-Mocha project, which is focused on the effects of sonar on cetaceans. However, our aim is for the workshop and the resulting conceptual frameworks to be relevant to other noise sources.   A public workshop report will be sent to all participants and posted on the MOCHA website (https://mocha.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/).

Dissemination of Workshop Results: Public workshop report will be sent to all participants and posted on the MOCHA website (https://mocha.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/)

Format: Short talks, break-out groups and open discussion. This full day workshop also includes a poster session.

New paper published on blue whales

Southall, B., DeRuiter, S., Friedlaender, A., Stimpert, A., Goldbogen, J., Hazen, E., Casey, C., Fregosi, S., Cade, D., Allen, A., Harris, C. M., Schorr, G., Moretti, D., Guan, S. & Calambokidis, J. (2019). Behavioral responses of individual blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus) to mid-frequency military sonar. Journal of Experimental Biology. 222: jeb190637 doi: 10.1242/jeb.190637