Ep.5 - Arctic Ocean - Michael Stocker - 28th June, 2021 - Part 1

In this first of a two part series of episodes, Martin talks with Michael Stocker, bioacoustician, musician, naturalist and director of California based Ocean Conservation Research. OCR is an organisation focused on understanding the scope of, and exploring solutions to, the growing problem of human generated noise pollution and its impact on marine animals. Michael is also the author of ‘Hear Where We Are: Sound, Ecology and Sense of Place’, a fantastically rich and accessible introduction to bioacoustics, and which contains much that is central to the aims of the HomeSounds project. The extended environmental sound in this episode comes from a collection of one week’s continuous audio recordings of the Arctic Ocean, provided courtesy of Cornell University’s Macaulay Library. As well as discussing the incredibly rich and mysterious acoustic habitat of the ocean, the relationships between language and environmental sound, and Michael’s personal career path in sound, the conversation also explores the role sound plays in making humans feel safe, and the dangers posed by isolation to this feeling of safety. We return to this theme in the second part of this series, perhaps because of its importance to the HomeSounds project. LinksOcean Conservation Research - https://ocr.orgArctic Recordings - https://ocr.org/arctic/arctic-recordings/‘Hear Where We Are’ - https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9781461472841Macaulay Library - Cornell University - https://www.macaulaylibrary.orgBowhead Whale - https://uk.whales.org/whales-dolphins/species-guide/bowhead-whale/Snapping Shrimp - https://ocr.org/sounds/snapping-shrimp/Sperm Whale - https://uk.whales.org/whales-dolphins/species-guide/sperm-whale/Cicada - https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/facts/cicadas