A scientific team listens to the white continent’s sea wildlife by immersing microphones in its depths. This is a fascinating journey.
In the depths of the Antarctic Ocean, immersed microphones record sounds of “spaceshifts” and a range of “impressive” buzzing. This is what the Colombian scientist Andrea Bonilla explains, while she monitors sea life during an expedition to the edges of the white continent.
500 meters below surface
This biologist from the New York Cornell University immerses hydrophones 500 meters deep. They are wrapped with titanium and will register these depths’ soundwaves during one whole year.
Once the soundwaves are deciphered, they will help to understand the sea mammals’ behavior and their movements during austral winter, when the Antarctic becomes almost uninhabitable.
“Here, you can find species whose sound is impressive, literally like in Star Wars, they sound like spaceships. Very few ears have the privilege to hear them.” the 32-year-old scientist reports aboard the ARC Simon Bolivar, a Colombian navy’s ship.
Tension and excitement
Andrea Bonilla – who holds a PhD in marine acoustics – and the other scientists aboard the tenth Colombian expedition in the Antarctic also gather the microphones that were left the year before during a mission operated by the Turkish Navy.
Guided by the GPS, the boat is entering the meeting zone. In order to make the hydrophone come back to the surface, Andrea Bonilla is releasing the anchor that keeps it immerged. The whole team is now peering into the quiet waters during eight long minutes until a little flag unfurls at the surface, welcomed by joy.
She’s warmly congratulated by her co-workers and expresses relief. “I’m really excited because it was the first time we did this operation in those waters. Everything turned out great.” the Colombian scientist says delightedly.
Assessing the impact of human activity
Once back onto dry land, she will analyze one year of recording. “In a marine environment, sound is one of the core elements.” she says. It is, because noise or auditory disturbances can affect intraspecies communication or hinder the normal continuity of natural activities such as hunting.
Illustration photo Sipa/Chine Nouvelle
These investigations also intend to assess the impact of human activity and of the pollution to which mammals are exposed in one of the most preserved spots on earth.
“Protected marine area »
Another purpose is to support the proposal, which has been promoted by Chili and Argentina since 2012, to make the Antarctic peninsula “a protected marine area”. Andrea Bonilla works with spectrographs who visually represent the sound frequencies. Medium and high frequencies arise from animals of different sizes.
Her discoveries won’t just be used to monitor the sea mammals, they will help as well geophysical research: the microphones capture low frequencies that are emitted by Earth movements and melting ice.
Penguins and whale
Not far from the ship, a penguin colony is walking on a giant toboggan-shaped ice block while on the surface, the scientists are watching a humpback whale take a last breath before winter makes it leave towards Pacific’s warmer waters.
Illustration photo Sipa/Chine Nouvelle
“My first encounter with a whale happened with a singing whale, and I think it changed my life”, the scientist remembers.
After having eaten for months in the Antarctic peninsula and the Strait of Magellan in Chile, thousands of these large mammals meet between June and October in order to breed, in a sea corridor which stretches from South Costa Rica to North Peru.
Melodious animal songs
But “there are also species which live only here”, she stresses, such as Weddell seals and leopard seals, which make high-pitched songs of various tones and melodious compositions which provide information about their behavior.
Andrea Bonilla is getting ready to drop new hydrophones and is tying on top of the titanium tank a red flag which will be used to detect it in the midst of the waters when she comes back next year. During the expedition, three microphones have been immersed, two in the Strait of Bransfield and one in the Drake Passage.
Source: https://www.leprogres.fr/environnement/2024/02/18/des-micros-dans-les-fonds-de-l-antarctique-pour-comprendre-la-vie-marine#Echobox=1708238993 (translated from French by the Karukinka association)
Supporting Antarctic scientific investigation is the job of the national Antarctic programmes, the government entities charged with delivering their countries’ Antarctic research strategies. This requires sustained investment in people, innovative technologies, Antarctic infrastructures, and vessels with icebreaking capabilities. The recent endorsement of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) Polar Code (2015) means that countries must address challenges related to an ageing icebreaking vessel fleet. Many countries have recently invested in and begun, or completed, builds on new icebreaking Polar research vessels. These vessels incorporate innovative technologies to increase fuel efficiency, to reduce noise output, and to address ways to protect the Antarctic environment in their design. This paper is a result of a Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programs (COMNAP) project on new vessel builds which began in 2018. It considers the recent vessel builds of Australia’s RSV Nuyina, China’s MV Xue Long 2, France’s L’Astrolabe, Norway’s RV Kronprins Haakon, Peru’s BAP Carrasco, and the United Kingdom’s RRS Sir David Attenborough. The paper provides examples of purposeful consideration of science support requirements and environmental sustainability in vessel designs and operations.
Read more : https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/polar-record/article/icebreaking-polar-class-research-vessels-new-antarctic-fleet-capabilities/9177AFA1FDFAD8B9E5AE5DC68A5C8F80
A haunting sound captured by researchers could help monitor changes to Antarctica’s Ross Ice Shelf from afar. Extremely sensitive sensors were buried two metres under the surface to capture ‘seismic motions’. Winds blowing across the icy surface create vibrations, producing a ‘near-constant set of seismic tones’, according to the study in Geophysical Research Letters. The frequency is too low to be heard by human ears and, according to the American Geophysical Union, it was only made audible by speeding up the recording about 1,200 times
As part of its birthday’s activities, the Magallanes University organized a grateful tribute to the last yagan speaker, Cristina Calderón. Photograph of Luisa Villablanca
For the 53rd birthday of the Magallanes University(UMAG), the regional department of high studies rendered this thursday a rightful homage to Cristina Calderón, National Living Treasure ofyagán people, and representative of the « canoera » culture (nomadic people of the south Magellan Strait channels) of the extreme south of Chile.
The ceremony took place on the Patagonian Institute, and conducted by the rector of the UMAG, Juan Oyarzo, accompanied by the Intendant of Magallanes y Antártica Chilena, Jorge Flies.
The highest regional authority congratulate the university for this “rightful tribute” attributed to Cristina Calderón. “It is in fact what we have to do as a community. We are lucky to have Cristina with us. We are really pleased that she has been able to come with her daughter and has been able to receive our displays of affection. We all agree that this tribute we rendered is important to her, recognized National Living Treasure by the UNESCO.”, the intendant Flies stated.
The chief of the Regional Government considers as a real gift to give Cristina Calderon the possibility to express herself in her’s mother tongue. In this sense, and to preserve the yagán language, Flies announced that he had started to solicit the linguist Oscar Aguilera, that who realised great worksabout the kawésqar language, to make, with Calderon, a similar work for the benefit of the safeguarding of this language.
For his part, the UMAG rector, Juan Oyarzo, got very emotional at the end of the ceremony. “I’m very touched to have had the opportunity to lead this event and to have been able to say a few words to “la abuela” Cristina this afternoon”, Oyarzo said and added “It’s good to pay these tributes as long as she’s alive. But we also have a sense of guilt from an era in which people were blind to the consequences of their acts against Yagan people. We are now seeing the impacts : an ethnic group and a language are at the point of disappearing”.
“I am full of emotion because, although late in coming, we have reached to pay this tribute,but especially because we are an inclusive university that pretend to link all localities likePuerto Williams, Puerto Natales and Porvenir, where we also have university centres.”, the rector commented. He announced that he committed himself, as an academic, to support the intentions of a Cristina’s niece, also present to this tribute and who whishes to study the Pedagogy in Early Education.
The authorities undertake to ensure the governance of the possibility, for Cristina Calderón, to teach her language and thus to preserve and diffuse a part of her culture with the rest of the Magellanic community.
