All Ears

MIT-WHOI Joint Program graduate student Nicholas Macfarlane aims a directional VHF antenna from the highest point on a boat operated by CIRCE (Conservación, Información y Estudio sobre cetáceos) in the Strait of Gibraltar to hunt for a DTAG in the water. The non-invasive, releasable instruments record position, movement, and sound to give researchers a picture of an animal’s behavior and environment over periods of up to a day. Macfarlane, WHOI post-doc Frants Jensen, and a group from CIRCE are tagging pilot whales in the strait throughout the month of August in an effort to understand group and individual social dynamics and feeding strategies, as well as the impact of human-generated sound on behavior. (Photo by Frants Jensen, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)