Acoustic Interactions with the Endangered Vaquita

The vaquita (Phocoena sinus) are endemic to the northernmost portion of the Gulf of California and are the world’s most endangered cetacean. Vaquita, like other toothed whales, have the ability to echolocate, which is the use of biological sonar to investigate their environment. Acoustics allow scie...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Lande, Michelle
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: eScholarship, University of California 2009
Subjects:
Life Sciences
Vaquita
Gulf of California
cetacean research
endangered species
endangered cetaceans
marine acoustics
echolocation
finite element modeling
vaquita anatomy
toothed whales
Online Access:http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/5g1268sz
Description
Summary:The vaquita (Phocoena sinus) are endemic to the northernmost portion of the Gulf of California and are the world’s most endangered cetacean. Vaquita, like other toothed whales, have the ability to echolocate, which is the use of biological sonar to investigate their environment. Acoustics allow scientists to study these animals’ behavior, biology, and population dynamics more easily. This project aimed to use Finite Element Modeling (FEM) to understand the interaction between acoustic stimuli and the anatomy of the vaquita.

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