The New England
Chapter of
The Explorers Club
"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all"

--HELEN KELLER
On Tuesday, March 18, 2008 The New England Chapter of The Explorers Club presents:

Tracking the Bowhead Whale|
Photos and Underwater Sounds from Field Studies in the 1980's off Point Barrow, Alaska

presented by

Dr. William Ellison of Marine Acoustics, Inc.
and
Dr. Christopher Clark of Cornell University

Richard Ellis' rendering of a Bowhead whale diving
Dear New England Chapter of The Explorers Club members, guests, and friends. You are cordially invited to a special event that will take place the evening of TUESDAY THE 18th OF MARCH 2008. At this Meeting of the New England Chapter of The Explorers Club we will be treated to a presentation by fellow Explorers Club and New England Chapter member Dr. William Ellison.

In the early 1980's, Bill Ellison of Marine Acoustics Inc., teamed with Chris Clark of Rockefeller Institute (now Director of Bioacoustics Research at Cornell) on a long term study of the Bowhead Whale in the Beaufort Sea. The primary purpose of this study was to determine the size of the Beaufort population of these great baleen whales, but also to better understand their general behavior. The study was initiated in 1983 and focused on the spring migration of the bowheads as they passed Point Barrow Alaska. The field season typically ran from Early March until Mid-June.

Tonight's talk is replete with photographs of the field work as well as recordings of the many vocalizing animals present in the Arctic. The talk describes the acoustic methods they developed to track and count these great whales, and especially focuses on the ice-breaking capabilities of the bowheads and their ability to migrate under total ice cover. The portable field system they developed for tracking the bowhead whales has become in the ensuing years a benchmark system for marine mammal acoustic research world-wide, and has been adapted by Cornell researchers for tracking the infrasonic vocalizations of elephants.

Bill and Chris are both Fellows of the Explorers Club, and their 1985 expedition carried the EC Flag. They are both involved in a wide range of activities centered on the acoustic environment of the world's oceans, and currently engaged in a long term study of the ecology of the Stellwagen Bank National Sanctuary in conjunction with NOAA National Sanctuaries and the Northeast Science Center of National Marine Fisheries Service.

Yours in exploration,

Greg
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