Ocean Roar

The Whale Museum is pleased to welcome Michael Jasny as part of the 2014 Summer Lecture Series.

Michael will discuss “Ocean Roar: Combating Noise from Commercial Ships” on Tuesday, August 26 at 6:30 p.m.

Photo courtesy of Beam Reach

The ocean is an acoustic world, and whales and many other species of marine life rely on sound for their survival. But we are rapidly transforming that world. The roar of commercial ships has elevated natural ambient levels of noise by orders of magnitude since the 1950s, destroying the ability of whales to communicate, producing chronic stress, and inhibiting their foraging.

Major new transport projects threaten to dramatically increase the volume of shipping through Puget Sound and the Salish Sea and further degrade the acoustic habitat of our region. In this lecture, Michael Jasny will describe the global problem of underwater shipping noise and discuss some important recent efforts, from London to Lime Kiln, to bring it under control.

Michael Jasny is Director of the Marine Mammal Protection Project and a Senior Policy Analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). He is a leading expert in the law and policy of ocean noise pollution, and has worked domestically and internationally for more than 15 years through high-profile litigation, lobbying, science-based policy development, and public advocacy to improve regulation of this emergent global problem.

Michael is also engaged in securing protection for endangered marine mammal populations and critical habitat, opposing development projects that threaten marine mammals off the U.S. and Canada, and improving management of fisheries, whale-watching, and other sectors under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the nation’s leading instrument for the conservation of these species. Michael is the author of several NRDC reports and author or co-author of various publications in legal, policy, and scientific journals. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Yale College and J.D. from Harvard Law School.

The August 26th lecture event is free and open to the public. For more information, call (360) 378-4710 ext. 30. The Whale Museum is located in Friday Harbor at 62 First St. N. Founded in 1976, The Whale Museum’s mission is to promote stewardship of whales and the Salish Sea ecosystem through education and research. In addition to providing exhibits, the Museum also provides programs including the Marine Naturalist Training, Orca Adoption Program, Soundwatch Boater Education, San Juan Islands Marine Mammal Stranding Network, and the Whale Hotline. The Whale Museum can be found on-line at www.whalemuseum.org.

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