Area of Study: Dolphins

Together with Marcos Rossi, I am studying the effects of noise pollution on the local Guiana dolphin (Sotalia guianensis) population in the Todos os Santos bay of Salvador, Brazil. This species relies on their highly adapted sense of hearing for communicating, hunting, and navigating the brown, murky waters of the Bay. Additionally, they utilise an adaptation called echolocation, in which they can basically see with sound, by measuring the distance of objects based on the time their produced sounds travel to the object and back.

With increasing industrialisation and growing population of Salvador, underwater noise pollution caused by motors, blast fishing explosives, and industrial practices pose an ever-growing threat to the sound-sensitive Guiana dolphin. Due to their dependence on hearing, noise pollution may be significantly impacting the dolphin’s ability to perform everyday tasks such as hunting and communicating. Markus Rossi’s Lab on Bioacoustics and acoustic ecology takes on an innovative approach by studying these dolphins through the same lens through which the dolphin lives – the lens of sound. Using a hydrophone, Markus is able to study the dolphin’s communication and behaviour underwater, as well as their behavioural reactions to noise pollution, which would normally not be possible strictly through visual observation.