Oceans and Human Heath: Hand in Hand

Healthy oceans and healthy humans are inseparable. This article discusses new pharmaceuticals that are coming from the sea, and also ocean problems like harmful algal blooms that impact humans.

DNA, Red Tide and the Sea: a new exhibit at Mystic Aquarium & IFE

DNA, Red Tide and the Sea is a new exhibit at Mystic Aquarium & IFE. It was developed by UConn Marine Sciences Professor Senjie Lin, and Mystic Aquarium. Children can extract DNA from fruit and learn about genetic codes and red tides in the ocean.

Fort Richardson Ordnance Detonations and the Harbor Porpoise: A Case Study in Marine Mammal Bioacoustics

Hearing is extremely important for cetaceans because it is their “principal sense” (Weilgart, 2007) thus the harbor porpoise and other marine animals are highly dependent on sound for survival. This is why we should care about the impact of noise on animals like the harbor porpoise. Since sound travels so well in water, an explosion, sonar, boat noise, etc. can affect a very large area and thus many different species of marine mammals. Although military actions such as low frequency sonar have made recent news, noise has been affecting cetaceans, especially beaked whales, since at least 1991 (Weilgart, 2007). This study is an investigation of the possible impacts of artillery detonated on land on harbor porpoise hearing and covers some of the history of Fort Richardson, the legal and historical aspects and history of this type of concern, the science and physics of sound, marine mammal hearing and general biology of the harbor porpoise. Data were collected at the Fort Richardson Army base during June of 2007 by researchers from the University of Connecticut and the University of Rhode Island and will be used to determine the possible impacts that these detonations could have on the harbor porpoise.