Saturday, April 1, 2 – 4 p.m., Emmanuel Episcopal
— from Janet Thomas —
The Southern Resident Killer Whales are on the brink of extinction. Several threats to their recovery include shortage of Chinook salmon, pollution, oil spills, and noise and harassment from vessels.
The threat least understood by the public is the impact of motorized vessel noise.
Over the last 10 years, working with his colleague Dimitri Ponirakis, Dr. Chris Clark has developed novel ways to demonstrate, through animation, how human noises in the ocean impact the acoustic environments for a variety of marine mammals. Dr. Clark’s presentation will show animations of changes in the acoustic habitat of foraging Southern Resident Killer Whales under a variety of whale watching conditions.
Dr. Clark, a senior scientist at Cornell, is an engineer and biologist. His research concentrates on animal acoustic communication with particular interest in endangered species. Most recently he devoted considerable effort to scientific advocacy through the documentary films, “Racing Extinction” and “Sonic Sea.” Both were presented last year at the Friday Harbor Film Festival.
BACKGROUND INFO RE: WHALE PROTECTION ZONE
