THE UNFATHOMABLE EXPANSE of the Southern Ocean presents a problem for anyone studying it. Half a century of audio recordings has shown the waters around Antarctica are teeming with life. So much, in fact, it would take decades for researchers such as Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) bioacoustics expert Dr Brian Miller to manually analyse all the data.
Brian’s work focuses on identifying and understanding the behaviours of Antarctic marine mammals by listening to underwater audio recordings, notably the calls of blue whales. “There are species in the Antarctic that make a lot of noise but aren’t encountered very frequently, so you can learn a lot by listening for them,” Brian explains. “There are dozens of species of animals…and they all make a variety of noises.”
The diversity of species Brian is listening for means there’s a huge volume of information to deal with.
