Active from 1999 to 2011.
It was a large international project, managed under the aegis of NATO, first through the SACLANT Undersea Research Center, then NURC and then CMRE, which involved a long annual cruise in the North-West Mediterranean, especially focused on the Ligurian Sea, with the use of the RV Alliance and several other important and technologically advanced logistical supports. Experts from the Genoa Aquarium and then from the Fondazione Acquario di Genova Onlus participated in each annual cruise, and also collaborated in the development of the project.
The project, which involved 24/7 on-board observations of both acoustic and visual (daytime) nature, with the assistance of several dozen researchers from several countries, had the objective of establishing the level of sensitivity to acoustic disturbances of the sperm whale ( Physeter macrocephalus ), but also of establishing the effects of low frequency sonar on cetaceans in general, in order to develop a precautionary procedure for conducting experiments at sea by the Navies of the various NATO countries.
The project also allowed us to transfer all the cetacean data that could be obtained from the various active or past projects, including strandings, to a GIS system in order to correlate them with bathymetric and other thematic maps.
During the course of the project, it was possible to make numerous discoveries on some behavioral and ethological aspects of cetaceans and, in particular, of the sperm whale.
Partner:
NATO, Italian Navy, Spanish Navy, US Navy – Office of Naval Research, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Genoa Aquarium – Costa Edutainment SpA, Genoa Aquarium Foundation Onlus, University of Pavia – CIBRA, University of North Carolina, Cetacean Studies Center, Natural History Museum of Milan, Aquastudio Research Institute, Tethys Research Institute, Alnilam Research and Conservation, Milan Polytechnic – Polimi.
Sponsors:
NATO (SACLANT Undersea Research Center, NURC, CMRE), Aquastudio Research Institute.
