Here we mainly focus on organizational tasks such as fundraising, organizing projects, transfer of knowledge and the general visibility of our organization and work. It functions as a headquarters from which we coordinate and organize most of our projects and where we analyze the majority of our collected data.
The health of our marine ecosystems is severely threatened and there is not much time left to prevent permanent and lasting damages!
Whales fertilize the oceans and incorporate more CO2 than trees, as scientists have found out just recently. Although the oceans seem far away from central Germany, human activities here severely affect the balance in the ocean and influence the survival of whales and other marine organisms worldwide.
Sound underwater is particularly important to keep the marine systems in balance. However, it has no big public presence or attention. For instance, the sound of healthy coral reefs signal fish where to find shelter, protection and food. The vibrant coral reef sounds also serve as important cues for orientation for whales and to safely navigate in deep waters along the reefs.
Sound is the most important sensory information for whales and dolphins. Sound enables them to “see” under water via echolocation. Complex vocal communication enables them to create and live in stable strong-bonded and complex multi layered social societies.
But with the extreme and steadily increasing man-made noise pollution we deprive them of their most important natural environment. Noise masks their communication and echolocation, this can lead to chronic stress, displacements, disturbances of important behaviour such as feeding and breeding and in some cases it can be lethal. The main noise sources are coming from:
boats/ships/vessels: private, commercial (transport and tourism) exploitation of the oceans (seismic surveys to find natural/soil resources in the sea floor, such as oil and gas, deep-sea mining)
meteorological surveys and military sonar
Our mission (as an organization) is to inform people in Germany (and elsewhere) about the state of the ocean with focus on marine mammals. We underline our observations with empirical facts collected during our projects in different marine areas. On site we work closely together with local communities for hand on conservation. With our work we can then channel information on devastating effects human impact on the local marine ecosystems directly to our base in Germany. By collecting information from the Arctic, Chile and tropical areas in Indonesia we can convey a bigger picture of how everything is interrelated and develop effective protective measures and solutions.
One of our heart projects is to bring the whales to the people, not the other way around. We present the world of whales in lectures and interactive science stations from our collected corresponding audio and visual material throughout our 15 years of research worldwide. We want to make science alive to give people the chance to learn and study whales by themselves and to understand how their own actions can affect the lives of the whales, in order to motivate them to act more sustainable and responsible in the future.
Whale Sound Library
2020
We are very happy to present our interactive sound library (sounds, pictures and information) from 15 different whale and dolphin species from our past 15 years of hard work in the field! Heike has been collecting all sounds and photos and Madita put into a beautiful and informative presentation.
Included (among others) is the largest mammal on this planet, the blue whale, recorded during breeding in Chile Patagonia, the loudest animal on earth the sperm whale, 5 blackfish dolphins (Orca, pilot whales included) and their complex communication and different species of dolphins!
The library is divided into different fun quizzes which are a big success amongst kids.
The critical topic of noise and plastic pollution comprises the second part of the presentation, which totals to 120 slides!
We are looking forward to bring the library / whales and dolphins closer to you!