Discovery of sound in the sea: Webinars as a means of communicating current underwater acoustics research to decision makers

Underwater sound used for anthropogenic activities is reviewed and restricted under a variety of environmental regulations. Decision makers must often synthesize rapidly new scientific research results to inform their assessments of potential impacts of proposed projects. To assist this need, the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography has teamed with Marine Acoustics, Inc., in the Discovery of Sound in the Sea (DOSITS) project to provide accurate scientific information on underwater sound through a diversity of resources and digital platforms, including webinars. Building on the foundation of the successful 2015-2016 DOSITS webinar series and informed by the results of three international regulatory community needs assessments, the DOSITS project is hosting throughout 2018 a four-part webinar series on the fundamentals of underwater hearing and potential impacts of underwater sound on marine animals, particularly marine mammals (April–May) and fishes (November). Evaluation results from the first two webinars on marine mammals showed that 90% of survey respondents were very satisfied or satisfied with the content coverage, and 97% were extremely or very likely to attend future DOSITS webinars. The webinar approach has provided much needed on-the-job training for decision makers to effectively incorporate new scientific research into their evaluation processes.