Discovery of Sound in the Sea

Started after a mysterious beaching of beaked whales and dolphins, Discovery of Sound in the Sea (DOSITS, https://dosits.org/) has been providing educational content to the public about the science of underwater sound for over 20 years. In this episode, we talk to Kathleen Vigness-Raposa (Inspire Environmental) and Holly Morin (University of Rhode Island) about how the site has developed over time, resources available on the site, upcoming initiatives, and how acousticians can get involved with DOSITS.

Read more about DOSITS in Acoustics Today.
Learn more about Acoustical Society of America Publications.
Music: Min 2019 by minwbu from Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=music&utm_content=1022

Transcript

Kat Setzer  00:06

Welcome to Across Acoustics, the official podcast of the Acoustical Society of America's publications office. On this podcast, we will highlight research from our four publications. I'm your host, Kat Setzer, editorial associate for the ASA. Today we're going to talk about a really fun resource from the University of Rhode Island's Graduate School of Oceanography and INSPIRE Environmental of Newport, Rhode Island. And that's the website Discovery of Sound in the Sea, or DOSITS. DOSITS is a website that was created by some ASA members and has been written about in Acoustics Today, on many occasions. I'll be talking to Kathy Vigness-Raposa and Holly Morin about DOSITS. Kathy, and Holly, thanks for taking the time to speak with me today. How are you?

Kathleen Vigness-Raposa  00:51

Doing great, Kat. Thanks for having us.

Holly Morin  00:53

Yeah, doing well. Thanks so much. Looking forward to this chat today.

Kat Setzer  00:56

Yeah! So tell us a bit about yourselves and your research backgrounds.

Kathleen Vigness-Raposa  01:00

Hi. So this is Kathy Vigness-Raposa. I got into underwater sound through the marine mammal world. So I was really interested in how animals communicate. And obviously in the ocean, you know, they use sound to do that. My background is also in education, and so my undergraduate degree was in education, high school education for science. And so one of my passions has always been to help the general public understand science content better. So it's a great meshing with Discovery of Sound in the Sea, or DOSITS, project.

Holly Morin  01:34

So this is Holly Morin, and I have a very similar path to Kathy's, actually. So my background is also in marine mammal science. I have a degree in marine mammal biology... My undergrad degree was in general biology, and then my graduate degree, my master's degree is in marine mammals, working with Steller sea lions off Alaska. And then I shifted into regulatory work with National Marine Fisheries, and then shifted into education. And so I've been doing education outreach work all along, along with my research, along with when I worked for the National Marine Fisheries Service. And so it's been one of those passions, as Kathy mentioned, something that I've been consistently doing. And it was just nice to be able to marry the science, marry the marine mammal work, and the ability to communicate about science. I actually don't have an acoustics background. So it's been really fun for me to learn while I've been working on this project for about the last 15 years,

Kat Setzer  02:24

I feel like at that point, that means you do have an acoustics background. But...

Holly Morin  02:27

Yeah, I do have like a degree by association, maybe. 

Kat Setzer  02:32

Yeah, right. So what is Discovery of Sound in the Sea?

Kathleen Vigness-Raposa  02:35

So Discovery of Sound in the Sea, or DOSITS as we like to call it, is an educational outreach project that began over 20 years ago. And it's... dosits.org is the website, which is the main feature piece of the DOSITS project. And we have over 450 pages of content now, where we've developed looking at what is the science of sound, and then how do animals and people both use sound? And what we've found is that a lot of times, the general public doesn't understand ocean science enough to realize that light doesn't penetrate very far in the ocean, and that you really do need to use sound to accomplish a lot of the tasks that we use light for on land. And so we really wanted to provide that background of how do people use sound to accomplish these tasks? And how do animals accomplish a lot of tasks? But then also provide them with that really basic science section so that they would understand things. And then from there, it's morphed into having, we've had a lot of webinars usually, four webinars each year that have been really a great resource for people to be part of learning about a topic from a specialist and then being able to ask questions in real time. And we also record those and then archive them, so that they're available afterwards. We also found that because the website is so big now, a lot of times a new person coming to the site doesn't know where to start, or where to go next when they have a question. And so we've developed progressive learning modules that help the reader or the user, sort of learn about a topic like you would in a traditional classroom. 

Kat Setzer  04:13

That's super nifty. So how did DOSITS get started?

Kathleen Vigness-Raposa  04:15

So DOSITS got started as a mechanism for actually educating the public. And so back in March of 2000, there was a Bahama stranding, and it happened because of some Navy sonar activity that was a group exercise that was occurring in the Providence Channel off the Bahamas, and dolphins, primarily beaked whales, but also one dolphin and one minke whale started to beach themselves as this exercise progressed through the channel. And at the time, no one knew what was going on. And so again, there's this big stranding, there's this mass stranding. Beaked whales are very unique and rare, and so having a mass stranding is very unique. And so at the time everyone was trying to figure out what was going on.  Unfortunately for the Navy, there was an Office of Naval Research, ONR, funded project that was happening in the same general oceanic region. And they had gotten a permit to do their work. And so everybody was pointing their fingers at this ONR research project, and there was a lawsuit associated with it. And there was no physical mechanism that this research project could have done this, but there was no way for the lawyers or the public affairs officials or, or any resource for any of them to go to, to help try and answer the questions that were coming up in the lawsuit or point the general public to real content about sound. And so the idea of DOSITS came about was, wow, like, there really isn't anything out there. This is a huge hole. And so ONR started funding us. And we've gotten funding since then, from the National Science Foundation, from the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA. And now we've been working also with other groups that use sound. And so there really is this concept that the public needs a resource. And it's been great that DOSITS has been around for over 20 years now. And it has really gotten to be that goto place where people go for information to try and understand, like, what might be happening in the oceans.

Kat Setzer  06:16

Yeah, that sounds like it is an incredibly useful resource, especially in understanding how research interacts with the environment and affects the environment, or doesn't affect the environment, as in the case of the beaked whales. So why is understanding the science of underwater sound important to folks outside of the field of underwater acoustics research?

Kathleen Vigness-Raposa  06:34

Um, so it's important....So I think dividing the folks outside of the field of underwater acoustics into those people who actually are in acoustics, and may understand in-air acoustics, but don't quite understand underwater acoustics. And there are a lot of very physical properties that are the same between air and underwater. But the way sound moves, because of that change, like either it's moving through air, or it's moving through water, makes a difference. And so it is important for people to understand that there is a difference because of that medium that's being, that the acoustic energy is moving through. But for the general public, I think that, you know, we wanted to develop resources that allow them to understand, you know, things that they see in the newspapers, or they hear on the radios. And so it's, again, underwater sound is so critically important for so many tasks in the ocean, and having someplace for them to go to try to understand, you know, I saw this news article, you know, and, and we do have hot topics on DOSITS, where if there is something that's like in the media right now, that's, we try to have some science behind that. So trying to help them understand that, the scientific process in general, like, what do we know? And how do we know it? And how are we developing our knowledge, so that the general public understands where things are going? 

Kat Setzer:

Okay, so how do you develop content for DOSITS?

Kathleen Vigness-Raposa

DOSITS, I think, is unique as a website. Because of the controversy associated with underwater sound and the potential effects on marine animals, we're very careful to make sure that we are using peer-reviewed literature. And so... But then on top of that, we also have an advisory panel that reviews any content. So content comes about because of new papers that have been published, or new concepts that we feel need to be addressed. We do talk a lot with professors who are teaching underwater sound or educators in kind of, K-12, who have sound topics of what they might like to have. And then we'll go and look for that peer-reviewed literature. And then we digest that literature into, you know, something that's digestible for the general public, but we have the advisory panel then review that to make sure that what we've digested is appropriate, that we haven't lost those key nuggets of fundamental science as we've digested it down for the general public. So topics can come from a wide variety of places, whether again, newly published papers, or people would make us aware of new research that they're working on, or new issues that are that would be coming up. And we try to, again, pull together the research of what's known and what is the unknown? And where do the kind of research gaps need to be? 

Kat Setzer  09:25

What about like Wikipedia, or like news articles or that kind of thing? How do they fit in? 

Kathleen Vigness-Raposa

Yeah, we definitely, we refer to those. And so if you go to a DOSITS content page, you know, there'll  be the content itself. And then we have the resources, the references that we've used, the peer-reviewed literature, but then we'll have a section that says, like, "additional resources," and so we want to point people to Wikipedia pages that are accurate, to, you know, other media pieces or other websites that are, you know, because there's a lot of educational websites that are available that you can link to particularly about general physics content. And so, you know, we lightly review those and make sure that that is accurate. And then we have those as additional resources. So if someone wants to dive deeper, they can. The other big piece we try to do, again, because DOSITS has over 450 pages of content, is to help them go on to the next page. And so we do have advanced content pieces, which are kind of undergraduate level. And so we'll point people to other concepts or other topics that are very similar to that page. And you know, so it's additional DOSITS resources that are there.

Holly Morin  10:33

Yeah, just real quick to kind of add to that. The other thing when it comes to articles that are in, you know, whether it be magazines, or posted online, through a news source, or something like that, I know, a lot of things are also generated through social media, those also tie back to the hot topics, which I think Kathy had just mentioned, which are on the front page, or maybe a topic or something that's come out in a news story that may not necessarily have a direct peer-reviewed literature piece associated with it yet. But it's something that's getting a lot of attention that, you know, does connect back to DOSITS. So in that case, we will include a lot of those resources, or a lot of those sources. And it'll still be listed as an additional source so that people can see all of the different media sources that are contributing to the buzz around that topic, per se. And then all the links back to DOSITS content and/or peer-reviewed literature that also relates back to it. So it kind of goes full circle. So we definitely use those sources. But you know, we're basing the bulk of the content that we develop on the peer-reviewed literature for sure.

Kat Setzer  11:36

Okay Yeah. And it sounds like you almost, in a way do a peer review of whatever additional resources you have. Not a true peer review, but you know, you're not just putting anything willy nilly up there if it has the same keyword. You're having experts go through it and say, "Oh, this is correct," or 'This is not correct."

Holly Morin  11:55

Yes, especially when it comes to other those other websites as well, you know, you want to, there are certain sites you definitely want to go to that, you know, can be little bit more trusted or that are more scientifically used. But I would say when it comes to the audio gallery, and we have all those different individual species that are there, there are other websites that just offer the information or have species descriptions, you know, that are good resources to have instead of us reinventing the wheel there. 

Kat Setzer  12:21

Right, exactly. Got it. So how has DOSITS expanded over time

Kathleen Vigness-Raposa  12:25

DOSITS naturally progressed through a variety of different user groups. And so we started off really focusing on K-12 educators, understanding that about the fifth grade level, and again, the eighth grade level, in the United States, there are sound-related topics like, in, the science curriculums, and really wanting to provide resources for educators to bring sound into that content. And so, as that progressed, we did add more advanced content and started working with undergraduate professors, and having sort of advanced content. So I think our general content we tried to shoot for like the fifth- to eighth-grade reading level, with limited math, kind of thinking that people might not have, like, a physics background. Whereas this advanced content, you know, we don't shy away from equations. And we sort of think, the concept is that you have a little bit more physics background. And then as that expanded, we really understood that a lot of regulators and decision makers have gotten their acoustics background through on-the-job training. And so we did a lot of needs assessments, talking with a variety of different audiences, and really kind of shifted our focus more towards regulatory processes, and how are impacts assessed and what does, you know, how is sound exposure thought about and looked at and quantified. And so we're kind of coming full circle. Now we're part of the UN Ocean Decade for Sustainability. And as part of that, we're supporting the Maritime Acoustic Environment Project, which is really trying to help develop acoustics in underrepresented countries. And so we've kind of come full circle, getting back to some basic fundamental content, and helping distribute that at a greater level.

Holly Morin  14:20

The other part, so in addition to the content itself expanding, the other thing that has shifted over time is kind of the delivery of content. So we've had this foundational website which has grown and grown and grown, but it was originally this wonderfully hand-coded piece of technology that, I even, I think that's what it was when I first started in 2008. And I think back to what the website was, and then it's had all of these different evolutions in, you know, technology or its interface, as the different web interfaces themselves have changed over time. So now we went from a hand-coded site with fantastic, like, GIF imagery to a WordPress, you know, with interactive media. You can play sound files. It's just, it's really advanced. But all that rich content is still there, it's got a lot more imagery that is not hand-coded. But then the other thing with these different needs assessments we've run with the whole acoustics community or individual users of DOSITS is how different audiences consume their content. So one, working to make the website more mobile friendly. But then the webinars that we've talked about that is another way for individuals to access specific topics and learn about it, but they also receive a professional development certificate at the end if they participate in all four webinars in a series, which is something we've also learned that professionals look for. So they can list that on their resumes as part of that on-the-job training. But then you have those structure tutorials, we have a suite of resources, some of them that go back to working with K-12 educators in the beginning, Name that Sound. If you haven't checked it out, it's a really simple, you know, game, PowerPoint activity, but it's really effective, that we still use. There's instructional videos, and then there's also interactive iBooks. Everyone always asks if we've made kind of an ebook, Kindle format, which we didn't, but we have these interactive iBooks that are available. They're free to download. And it's another way to access all the DOSITS content in kind of a different, you know, mobile accessible platform to see it. It's, they're really quite great resources, and they could be used in a classroom or just as a resource to have on hand. So a lot of different digital resources kind of as technology has advanced over time. 

Kat Setzer  16:24

Yeah, this all sounds really fun, honestly.

Kathleen Vigness-Raposa  16:27

Yeah, I would say, you know, right. Like Holly was saying, again, we first launched the website in November of 2002. So if you think back over the last 20 years of how you now use the internet, versus what was happening back then, and we were very conscious about elementary and middle schools not having, you know, maybe dial-up modems, maybe one computer that was shared across the entire school, whereas now, you know, everybody has their Chromebooks and all this, you know. So we were very conscious early on of trying to make sure it was accessible. But now we feel like, you know, they were not really that bandwidth limited. So, you know, we're trying to add a lot more video, a lot more interactive work, and it's been an exciting to change, make those changes. 

Kat Setzer  17:06

Yeah, that sounds very exciting. So what are your favorite resources on the website? 

Kathleen Vigness-Raposa  17:10

For me, I think what I really enjoy is kind of the variety of audiences, where we have really basic content and, in the audio gallery, where you can have you know, your three year old listening to sounds and, you know, what does lightning actually sound like underwater? Or what does a navy sonar sound like underwater, and, you know, you really don't need any kind of acoustics background, and it's really, you know, there's some crazy, you know, animal sounds. And then on the other extreme is this advanced content where we've had, again, we work really hard to try and digest really complex topics into something that is understandable. And so I've had a lot of grad students who will come to me and be like, "Oh, my God, I finally understand this concept. Like, I thought I got it, I sort of think I did, but there, was there was no real place where it was kind of all together and digested." And so like, I find that really uplifting that we've been able to provide that kind of resource at a good, at both extremes. And so I really do feel like it's been a great resource for the public across a wide variety of audiences.

Holly Morin  18:10

For me, personally, I always tell people to go check out the audio gallery, one, because of just the sheer wealth of sounds and the diversity of sounds that are there. I think a lot of people don't really know what sounds animals or human-made sounds or natural sounds sound like underwater. I think we all think about when we were kids, and we go talk underwater to our siblings or friends, that sounds like wah, wah, wah. And that's... The clarity of other sounds that animals or that animals make is just kind of mind boggling. And then, to take it a step further, I always suggest people go and, I again, researched pinnipeds, sea lions, with my master's work, so I'm a little partial to them, but to go check out seals, and especially the ice breeding seals, the cold water seals and the sounds that they make, because they don't, they sound alien like or, like from science fiction movies. They just don't sound natural. And then you think of the animal itself, making the sound underwater. And the reasons... They don't know why some of these animals make the sounds, right? And it's fascinating. And there are so many sounds that researchers record that they simply they don't know what they are. And it's just this wonderful kind of puzzle to solve. And to know that we've been part of bringing that and all the ones that they have identified to the public is really great. And I always love it when people are like, "No, that can't be, you know, a wedell seal," and like it is and they think it sounds like, some of them sound like creaky doors and a haunted movie. They sound like Star Wars guns. It's just it's funny. It really is.

Kat Setzer  19:40

It's not what you would expect at all. 

Holly Morin  19:41

No, not at all. No.

Kat Setzer  19:43

So what are some of DOSITS' latest initiatives?

Kathleen Vigness-Raposa  19:46

So I mentioned a little bit with the UN Ocean Decade and our support of the Maritime Acoustic Environment, and so we're really getting into trying to help underrepresented countries understand, you know, if they want to go out and do acoustic recordings, what does that entail? You know, everyone talks about, oh, I'll use, we'll go get a hydrophone. But it's really, you need an entire hydrophone system where you've got... I mean, you can listen to sounds with a hydrophone. But if you want to be recording them, you know, you've got a digital acquisition system. And what does that mean and so, so we're really supporting the UN Ocean Decade in terms of understanding, like, increasing people's resources to be able to make kind of soundscape measurements. The other big piece that we're doing is increasing our K-12 educator work. And so as Holly mentioned, we've been working with a couple of local teachers who are a fabulous resource and developing teacher development, so that teachers can come and have some professional development and get a certificate at the end that shows that they've done an underwater acoustics, you know, professional development course. And so really going back and expanding on the work and the resources that we have available to teachers are sort of our two big thrusts right now.

Kat Setzer  21:01

So what if somebody wants to get involved? Are there any opportunities? 

Kathleen Vigness-Raposa  21:05

Oh, absolutely. I actually, I should say, a huge, huge thanks to the underwater acoustics community, because DOSITS, and the audio gallery, in particular, would not exist without the number of sound files and videos and, you know, pictures that have been donated to us over the years. And so if anyone out there is making recordings and goes to DOSITS and doesn't see their stuff in our audio gallery, you know, definitely reach out and let us know. We'd be happy to work with you to develop an audio gallery page to highlight your sound files. Along that same line, you know, we are looking for specialists to review content as part of that, you know, peer-review process. And so if you have any special interests that, again, you don't see covered on the page, you know, we'd be happy to talk with you about developing content, and then having you, you know, work with us to make sure that that is digestible, and does that.

Kat Setzer  21:57

Very cool. Well, thanks again for taking the time to speak to me, I've always thought of DOSITS as the place with all the fun sound files of the ocean animal sounds. But it's neat to hear about all of the different resources you guys have. I hope this episode inspires some of our listeners to visit the site and share it with the non-acousticians in their lives. And, you know, spread the understanding of underwater sounds to folks.

Kathleen Vigness-Raposa  22:19

Yeah, thanks so much. And I would say we do have an Acoustics Today collection of DOSITS-related articles. So if you do want to learn more about DOSITS, and again, at the very basic general kind of Acoustics Today level, please definitely go to that website and look for the DOSITS collection. And we can get you started on, sort of, what is DOSITS? And again, as I said, we've done this for over 20 years now of doing online... So way before COVID, when everybody went to webinars we were we were already doing them.

Kat Setzer  22:47

Webinars before they were cool! 

Kathleen Vigness-Raposa  22:49

Yeah, yeah. So we do talk about sort of online educational tools and resources. And again, always happy to help anybody who is interested in doing something so definitely feel free to reach out 

Holly Morin  22:59

Speaking of webinars, we actually have two more webinars this season. So one in September, they'll be looking at underwater sounds associated with shipping, I believe and the Saturn project, which is again, not outer space. Saturn project is related to shipping noise. And then we will have one looking at natural sounds underwater and how animals and humans use that sound underwater. And that should be in October. Both of those are on the DOSITS website as well.

Kat Setzer  23:22

Okay, well, we'll link to the DOSITS website and the AT collection, so everybody can find all that stuff. Thank you. Have a great day.

Holly Morin  23:30

Thanks you, as well. 

Kathleen Vigness-Raposa  23:31

Thanks so much for talking with us.

Kat Setzer  23:34

Thank you for tuning into Across Acoustics. If you would like to hear more interviews from our authors about their research please subscribe and find us on your preferred podcast platform.