2021 Gulf LISTEN Cruise

Long-Term Investigations into Soundscapes, Trends, Ecosystems and Noise

The Marine Bioacoustics Research Collaborative (MBARC) is coming to you live from the R/V Pelican! We just sailed from Cocodrie, Louisiana on August 19th for the Gulf LISTEN cruise and we are looking forward to sharing our research with you as we circumnavigate the Gulf of Mexico over the next few weeks.

The goal of our collaborative project is to LISTEN which stands for long-term investigations into soundscapes, trends, ecosystems, and noise. We are collecting data from and deploying a network of underwater listening devices, or hydrophones, throughout the highly industrialized Gulf of Mexico. We are hoping to understand when and where marine mammals are found and monitor changes to their populations over time. This is particularly important in the face of climate change and the rapidly increasing human impacts on the Gulf of Mexico. Marine mammals are ecosystem sentinels, or indicators of ecosystem change. By monitoring their populations, we can also learn about changes in their ecosystem and better understand the ocean’s currents and water masses.

Let’s take a closer look at our cruise route! This map shows you a more detailed view of our cruise plan and the route we will take from site to site. Click on each pin to learn more about each recording site, how long we’ve been collecting acoustic data there, and what we have learned so far.

Some of these locations are long-term monitoring sites where we have been collecting acoustic data since the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. While others are new recording sites. With these new sites, we hope to fill in some gaps in spatial coverage of the Gulf of Mexico to continue monitoring the marine mammal populations of this region