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Michaela Harrison's "Whale Whispering Project

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Michaela Harrison's "Whale Whispering Project

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We are one.

We are one. That is the central message pulsing through this web that's spinning forth from me and that I'm being woven into, this confluence of sound and image through and across waves of various types (marine, sound, brain...) that, for now, is called Whale Whispering. I'm singing to and with humpback whales in Bahia, Brazil, birthing songs to contribute to the mending of the shattered collective spirit of humanity and support the protection, recovery, and homeostasis of the environment we share with the other beings of Earth--by tuning in to water. I am healing myself in the process, which is integral to the process, and learning more and more from water about how to heal water and heal with water. Training my attention on the messages contained within the humpbacks' songs. Tapping into whale medicine, this music of the seas, as a way to address and transmute the trauma and systemic brutality that the legacies of colonization and enslavement have wrought globally on people of African descent and indigenous folks while fomenting institutionalized disregard for and harm to the planet itself. Trolling the Atlantic for aural remedies to the disastrous delusion of division.

I've said in the past that the initial flicker for this undertaking appeared decades ago when I first heard the singing of humpback whales, though what's more true is that this is (part of) an ancestral assignment I was born to fulfill. The sonant imprint of my ancestors trills unmistakably in my blood, which is why I can identify its traces without hesitation in the songs of the whales (the source of the Blues...the Middle Passage moan)...And why I know too, without a doubt, that those ancestors who made that crossing came ashore with strains of whale hymns incorporated into the singing they would need to do in order to sustain a current of certainty in miracles flowing toward multi-directional freedoms and transformations.

The shape of this project as it currently exists has sprouted from a collective visioning process between myself and the whales; their intentions and ideas are as integral to it as are mine, and as difficult as it will be for some people to accept, the realization of this vision can only occur as a result of the telepathic communication that exists in this evolving relationship. This is totem work, and I am clear that not only is interspecies communication possible, it is necessary for what must be a collaborative effort to mitigate the effects of climate change on the ecosystems of the planet. While humans are responsible for causing the harm that has been inflicted, we must understand ourselves as part of the natural world in order to effectively participate in healing the damage to it (ourselves included). Listening to nature is key to developing that understanding. This is an elementary component of the vast majority of indigenous worldviews, but the modern, Western, corporate mindset and the media it fuels have worked wonders at erasing/blocking this awareness from far too many minds. The whales are speaking in the "language we all understand," to quote Stevie Wonder-music. I am among those who are listening, and am compelled to combine my songs, which are seasoned by the songs of my ancestors, with theirs, which are seasoned by the songs of their ancestors as well as mine. We sing songs together, the whales and I, come together on the open sea to share them, and invite the world to listen and watch and sing along.

This is a holistic process leading to more holistic processes and products; it spans the reaches between the surface and the depths, just as the whales do. In order for me to effectively complete my part in this creative mission, in order to truly tune in to the language of the whales and bring through lyrics, melodies and arrangements that do justice to their expressions, in order to be impactful in supporting the detoxification of the waters, I must dive fully into my own process of detoxification, and share that through this work. Detoxify my lifestyle of practices that are harmful to both the external environment and to my own person. Make the point that this is what is required for us to truly transform the situation in which we find ourselves globally-we must transform ourselves in order to transform our environment. We must heal ourselves in order to heal the world. I want the sharing of my journey of transformation (truly committing to being much less dependent on oil and plastics, overcoming sugar addiction, and doing the ongoing spiritual, physical, emotional and mental work of freeing myself from the twisted knots of ancestral trauma, for example) to be part of the story that is told through Whale Whispering. This blog is one of the ways I intend to share the process as it unfolds. Eventually there will be recordings and a documentary film related to this project, but I've come to understand that this work is about so much more than those specific outcomes. (For those who are new to Whale Whispering and would like to read the original description of the project and trace its trajectory from its inception, follow this link. I invite readers and supporters to journey with me, to accompany me as I peel back successive layers of this creative work, the whales' songs, and myself. I invite readers and supporters into this healing space with me; We are One.

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We are one. That is the central message pulsing through this web that's spinning forth from me and that I'm being woven into, this confluence of sound and image through and across waves of various types (marine, sound, brain...) that, for now, is called Whale Whispering.

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Facts About the Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphin

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Facts About the Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphin

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With a sleek frame glistening iridescent blues and greys, Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins are instantly recognisable. Made famous by corporations and TV shows, the world's intrigue in these beautiful individuals has gone hand-in-hand with their prolonged and widespread exploitation. Well-known for their toothy "grins", the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins have a longer beak than the common bottlenose dolphin, as well as a more distinctive dorsal fin. Despite looking very similar, they also have a more streamlined, slender frame bearing different shading and, in some cases, a speckly underbelly too.

Where do Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins live?

Happiest zipping through temperate waters, Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins have a taste for milder climes and are only found in the tropical waters of the Indian and western Pacific Oceans. Unlike most common bottlenose dolphin, these dolphins prefer shallow, coastal waters and it's not unusual to see them in and around estuaries. In fact, one particular group has made the heavily urbanised Port River in Adelaide, Australia their home.

What is life like for Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins?

Not unlike humans, Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins are highly social creatures. Females have large networks of female friends, whilst males form such strong bonds with one another that "alliances" can last a lifetime. Sometimes numbering in their dozens, most groups of Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins include 5-15 individuals and juveniles spend several years with their family learning everything from social etiquette to vital hunting skills. Young dolphins have much to learn and threats follow them into adult life, including predatory sharks and human activity such as boat traffic and pollution.

What do Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins eat?

Adapting to various conditions, from busy ports to sea grass bays to coral reefs, Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins enjoy a varied diet. With their quick-witted prey hiding in all sorts of tricky places, these dolphins are never ones to be thwarted and use all sorts of industrious tools and techniques to help them in their quest for fishy fodder. Firm favourites include squid, octopus and lots of different species of fish.

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Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin - Whale & Dolphin Conservation USA

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With a sleek frame glistening iridescent blues and greys, Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins are instantly recognisable. Made famous by corporations and TV shows, the world's intrigue in these beautiful individuals has gone hand-in-hand with their prolonged and widespread exploitation.

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Blacktip Reef Sharks jumping out of water while hunting

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Blacktip Reef Sharks jumping out of water while hunting

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Epic! Blacktip Sharks attacking Topwater Lures

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What happened during the Combahee River Raid?

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What happened during the Combahee River Raid?

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0:00 / 28:55•Watch full video

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M. NourbeSe Philip: Zong! and the Black Outdoors

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Lissodelphis: Northern and Southern Right Whales

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Lissodelphis: Northern and Southern Right Whales

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"Human observers mistakes Lissodelphis for seals or lions, or even for penguins sometimes. Which is to say, maybe it's not so much about being recognized as who we are as it is about staying together, feeding each other, knowing where we are, and moving through." (Gumbs)

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North Atlantic, North Pacific, and Southern Right Whales (marine mammals)

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Right whales occur in temperate to subpolar latitudes of all of the world’s oceans. North Atlantic [(Etibalaena glacialis (Miiller, 1776)] right whales were the first target of commercial whaling and the first whale species to be seriously depleted, and […]

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Draw a picture of a walrus in your mind's eye, and it'll go something like this: a roly-poly body thick with blubbery insulation, a distinguished mustache and invariably, a pair of long white tusks. In our collective imagination, tusks are their defining feature. Even the meaning of their Latin name, their binomial nomenclature, Odobenus rosmarus translates to 'tooth-walking sea horse', thought to be a reference to pulling themselves onto solid ice with their tusks like nature's own ski poles.

Like the rest of life on earth, the walrus we know and love is the result of the push and pull of natural selection, a reflection of momentous changes in the environment over the 17 million years that walruses have been on the planet. All of which is to say, they didn't always have tusks. So when and how did walruses acquire their most iconic feature? In a new paper, NHM's Associate Curator of Marine Mammals Jorge Velez-Juarbe and his colleagues report on, among other things, Osodobenus eodon, the oldest tusked walrus yet found in the fossil record, expanding our understanding of those famous pearly whites along the way.

Ancient WalrusES swam in Different waters

" Osodobenus was living in a much warmer environment than its modern contemporaries." says Velez-Juarbe. While today's walruses stick to the frigid waters of the arctic and subarctic, extinct odobenids (the family of marine mammals survived only by our modern walrus) once swam in very different waters, and their fossils have been found everywhere from Mexico to Japan. Osodobenus eodon was more of a local: the fossils were discovered in Orange County's Capistrano Formation, not far from Dana Point. Our local waters looked much different 5-10 million years ago, and Osodobenus would have had plenty of strange company. "In addition, there were other species of walruses, sea lions and fur seals living in the same habitats along the Southern California coast. Other animals which shared the local sea with Osodobenus included a variety of sharks, marlins, saber-toothed salmons, leatherback turtles, crocodiles and a wide variety of whales, dolphins and porpoises." Tusks must have helped Osodobenus get the calories needed to compete in these ancient, crowded waters.

Like today's walrus, Osodobenus was likely a benthic suction feeder: Picture a walrus doing its best impersonation of a vacuum cleaner, hoovering up small animals off or close to the seafloor. While the exact diet of these animals remains a mystery, anatomical features guide our understanding of how they fed. "Some of the specializations related to benthic suction feeding we see in Osodobenus includes having a highly arched palate, which we usually see in suction feeders as the greater surface area helps create a vacuum inside the mouth to suck in their prey." says Velez-Juarbe.

Along with tusks, Osodobenus likely shared a familiar facial hair with modern walruses. " O. eodon has large infraorbital foramina (an opening in the skull below the eyes), which is indicative of the presence of a large infraorbital nerve, which is the main sensory connection going to the whiskers." says Velez-Juarbe. "In other words, Osodobenus likely had a mustachioed appearance as do living walruses, which is definitely an advantage if you're looking for food on the seafloor." Their whiskers would've helped suss out what exactly they were about to suck up. Mustaches for walruses never go out of style.

Getting to the root of TUsks

Tusks are the key feature of modern walruses, helping the animals do everything from 'tooth walking' to punching air holes in sheets of ice. Walrus tusks are technically just really big canines, but what separates the regal tusk from just a big tooth? "To us (Jake, Jim and I) one of the most striking characteristics of Osodobenus was that it had very large canines, large enough for us to consider them as tusks." Velez-Juarbe said. But pushback from scientists reviewing their paper led Velez-Juarbe and company to develop a framework that finally gets to the root of what makes a tusk in walruses. "It turns out that there wasn't a clear definition, with some species with large canines variably considered as having or not having tusks." Some extinct walrus species don't have tusks, and some do; Osodobenus had canines bigger than its tuskless cousins, but smaller than tusked relatives. In their paper, Velez-Juarbe and company lay out that one key feature is "a root that is open proximally", meaning that the canines, on top of being proportionally larger, would likely be capable of continuous growth.

It's the potential for continuous growth that makes a tusk a tusk, and these discoveries mark continuous growth in NHM's collection of walruses along with huge potential. While finding the oldest tusked walrus and developing a framework for identifying tusks are super cool, the paper also describes two other new species of extinct walruses, expanding our understanding of these animals and making NHM the go to hub for studying walrus evolution. "With the description of these three new species, our museum now has a total of six holotypes of extinct walruses (more than any other museum in the world), in addition we have other specimens and research casts representing more than half of the known species of walruses. Holotypes are the name-bearing, reference specimens that researchers usually need to examine in order to compare with new material they may be working on, which makes NHMLAC an obligatory stop for anyone studying the evolutionary history of walruses."

Read the whole article in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology here and stay tuned for the newest discoveries on ancient marine mammals.

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Draw a picture of a walrus in your mind's eye, and it'll go something like this: a roly-poly body thick with blubbery insulation, a distinguished mustache and invariably, a pair of long white tusks. In our collective imagination, tusks are their defining feature.

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The South West African People's Organisation (SWAPO) was founded in Windhoek, South West Africa (presently Namibia) on 19 April 1960 by Herman Toivo ja Toivo. The party was originally formed to advocated immediate Namibian independence from South Africa and became the country's leading party following independence in 1990.

The SWA territory was entrusted by the League of Nations to South Africa under an administrative mandate after the First World War. After the Second World War, South Africa extended its apartheid policies to this territory and became a military occupier. After South Africa refused a United Nations order to withdraw from the trust territory in 1966, SWAPO turned to armed struggle.

SWAPO emerged as the sole liberation movement in the early 1960s because it had the support of the Ovambo, the largest ethnic group in Namibia. More a military organisation than a political one, SWAPO launched military operations against the South African government's military positions. On 26 August 1966 the first major clash of the conflict took place, when a unit of the South African Police, supported by South African Air Force, exchanged fire with SWAPO forces. This date is generally regarded as the start of what became known in South Africa as the Border War.

Initially SWAPO suffered heavy losses against the South African Army but later SWAPO was backed by the Angolan ruling party, Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola, the Soviet Union, the Norwegian government and the African National Congress. SWAPO used Angola as a base for guerrilla warfare on Namibian soil; operations were carried out by SWAPO's guerrilla force, the People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN). Beginning in 1978 South Africa made periodic retaliatory land and air strikes into Angola. Herman Toivo ja Toivo, the founder of SWAPO, was imprisoned in South Africa for a 20-year term in 1968 but was released in 1984. Nujoma returned to Namibia in September 1989.

In 1978 the UN recognized SWAPO as the sole representative of the people of Namibia. Both SWAPO and South Africa agreed to a UN plan for a cease-fire, withdrawal of South African troops, and free elections to be guaranteed by UN security forces. After years of diplomatic maneuvering, South Africa finally accepted a UN resolution to that effect in December 1988. Sporadic fighting continued. In 1989 Nujoma was elected president and SWAPO won a majority of the delegates selected by the country's voters to write a constitution for an independent Namibia. The following year a new constitution was adopted and Nujoma took office and in the same year South Africa completely withdrew unconditionally from Namibia.

SWAPO continued to dominate the political scene into the 21st century, transforming itself from a liberation movement into a governing party. SWAPO won the first and second election five years later. During its second term in office, the SWAPO dominated parliament and amended the constitution to allow their long term leader and now president of Namibia, Sam Nujoma, a third term in office. The constitutional amendment raised fears that this compromised Namibia's democracy. The party won 75.1% of popular votes and 55 out of 78 seats in the parliamentary election held on 15 November 2004.
Controversy within the movement
Various groups have claimed that SWAPO committed serious human rights abuses against suspected spies during the Independence struggle (esp during the period of exile). The most serious of these was the detainee issue, which remains a divisive issue. Another issue was the Breaking the Wall of Silence (BWS), which was founded by those detainees to press the SWAPO-government on the issue of human rights abuses. SWAPO denies serious infractions and claims anything that did happen was in the name of liberation. The stories of the detainees begin with a series of successful South African raids that made the SWAPO leadership believe that they were spies in the movement. Hundreds of SWAPO cadres were imprisoned, tortured and interrogated.

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South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO)

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The South West African People's Organisation (SWAPO) was founded in Windhoek, South West Africa (presently Namibia) on 19 April 1960 by Herman Toivo ja Toivo. The party was originally formed to advocated immediate Namibian independence from South Africa and became the country's leading party following independence in 1990.

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Main threats

Disease

There have been two recorded outbreaks of bacterial infections within the New Zealand sea lion colonies. During these outbreaks, pups are most at risk.

The first disease outbreak occurred in 1998 and resulted in the loss of 53% of pups during their first month of life. A different disease caused a series of outbreaks in 2002 and 2003, and killed 32% and 21% of pups during their first month of life, respectively.

Disease is unlikely to be the main cause of sea lion decline, but it may hinder the ability of the population to recover and may make sea lions more susceptible to other threats. Disease is a serious risk for this species due to its highly restricted range.

Fisheries

Fisheries are among the most relevant threats to sea lions. The main fisheries that operate within the New Zealand sea lion's subantarctic foraging range are the subantarctic squid, the scampi trawl fisheries, and the southern blue whiting fishery.

The subantarctic squid trawl fishery has historically captured the largest number of sea lions, but efforts have been made to reduce the frequency of incidental captures. This fishery operates in the foraging area of the Auckland and Campbell islands shelf between February and May, coinciding with the first four months of sea lion nursing.

Accidental capture in fisheries

Because females have a restricted foraging range while nursing, they are more likely than males to encounter squid trawl nets around the Auckland Islands. Research shows that female sea lions have a lower survival rate than males. Many of the females caught at this time of year are also pregnant or nursing, leading to a further decline in pup numbers.

The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) sets a maximum limit on sea lion deaths every season; if this limit is exceeded the fishery can be closed for the season. DOC and MPI are working with the fishing industry and conservation groups to limit this bycatch through improved fishing practices.

The squid trawl fishery has developed tools to try and reduce the number of sea lions caught in trawl nets. These tools are called SLEDs, or sea lion exclusion devices. They are designed to allow small species, like squid, to become trapped in the net, but block sea lions from entering the net and allow them to exit through an escape hatch.

However, the efficency of SLEDs has been questioned. Animals that escape a net via a SLED may become injured by the device, which could impact their survival, or they may drown. The ejection of sea lions also means that fishermen and fisheries observers are unable to count the number of sea lions that encounter the net.

Other threats

Pups mortality

Starvation

Pups falling into holes

Males aggressions

Prey availability

Some of the fish species targeted by fisheries, like squid, are the same species eaten by New Zealand sea lions. Additionally, female sea lions eat about 20% of their body mass - that's up to 80 kg of food per day - when nursing their pups. The combination of these two factors puts New Zealand sea lions particularly at risk from prey competition with fisheries.

A decline in prey species due to fishing could lead to poor nutrition in nursing pups and adult sea lions. There is also the concern that females must exert extra energy as they search for prey that becomes sparser. Extra energy expenditure during foraging may make New Zealand sea lions and their pups more susceptible to other threats like disease.

Human disturbance

Sea lions that are onshore are often resting from physiologically taxing foraging trips. They may also be caring for their young or socialising. When people and dogs disturb sea lions, they interrupt sleep or other important behaviours.

There have also been a few cases of New Zealand sea lions that have been deliberately shot and killed by humans on Stewart Island and the Otago Peninsula.

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There have been two recorded outbreaks of bacterial infections within the New Zealand sea lion colonies. During these outbreaks, pups are most at risk. The first disease outbreak occurred in 1998 and resulted in the loss of 53% of pups during their first month of life.

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How did a seal get to a lake in the middle of Siberia

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Opposition mounts against a new dash for hydrocarbon prospecting in the Eastern Mediterranean.

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African American culture is often considered expressive, dramatic, and even defiant, notes Quashie. Quiet is a metaphor for the inner life, and as such, enables a more nuanced understanding of black culture.

Quashie will discuss The Sovereignty of Quiet on Tuesday, Sept. 25, at 4:30 p.m. in Neilson Browsing Room. He recently responded to questions about the book.

Gate: How do you define your concept of Quiet?

Kevin Quashie: I try to make a distinction between the way that we commonly use the term "silence"-which is often imagined as something that is withheld or as absence-and the idea of Quiet, which I think of as a quality of being, as a manner of expression. Quiet can describe something that is vibrant-for example, one can say that a song or a novel is quiet. Quiet is a certain quality of being and it is this quality of being I am interested in. I know that silence can be expressive too-one can communicate something by not speaking, or by withholding. But, for me, the difference is the way that Quiet seems to represent a kind of inwardness, the vast feelings and thoughts and desires of one's inner life; the expressiveness of Quiet is not about suppression or reservation...it is an expressiveness that is interior.

I think that these ideas about Quiet reflect a particular dynamic of the way that race is tethered to publicness-race is a concept that is formed and contested in public discourse. But it also reflects the way that publicness is such an important feature of American culture as a whole. Part of it has to do with the significance of publicness (public spaces but also the way that notions of publicness are key to what it means to be a free citizen).

Gate: How did you come to embark on scholarly treatment of the topic of Quiet?

KQ: I think I have been interested in Quiet for much of my conscious life, though I certainly didn't always think of the term as I do now. I am inclined to be shy, to be observant, I like to study moments, people, and situations quietly. But I also know how to be social, I know how to overcome or compensate for shyness. Indeed, it has been important for me to do this, since there are ways that quiet can be misread (in general, but also specifically in terms of race and gender, for example). So the interest is very personal, almost psychological. Even as the book is not memoiristic, its shape is deeply personal: I am a child of quiet.

But there is another formative moment-when I started reading work by black women writers (and other women of color) in the early 1990s. I was struck by the fact that in many of these works, race and its social meanings were important but not necessarily paramount, that the representations of black life was not over-determined by racial discourse. The lives of black people, in the imaginations of these writers, were broad and multiple and complicated. So I started to think about what it meant to think about black life through some other framework, not one that ignores the enduring significance of race and racism, but one that imagines that there is an expansiveness to the humanity of a black person. I have been thinking about this idea for a long time, and in a variety of ways, some of them casual, some of them deliberate. And though I played around with other terms that might serve as a metaphor to help me organize my thinking, none of them ever seemed as capable as Quiet, a term which locked itself into my consciousness sometime in 2002.

Gate: What might we in society learn from the examples in your book of Quiet's magnitude?

KQ: I think that we can become a little more aware of the ways that we tend to understand or interpret blackness, interpretations that are pretty unconscious and that are made within black culture but also from outside of it. For example, resistance: resistance is so readily identified with black culture-it is a commonsense notion that black culture is expressive, dramatic, even defiant...characterizations that all point toward the notion of resistance. Resistance is such a powerful idiom in how we think about black culture, that it is a nearly unconscious assumption.

And while I am not arguing against resistance (I mean, organized and informal acts of resistance have been legendarily important to American history, never mind to black people's experience), I do think that the prevalence of understanding black culture through the framework of resistance actually keeps us from being able to see/notice black humanity; it is as if black people have no inner life, as if their being only conjures up a social narrative of racism and the resistance of racism, violence and the triumph over violence.

Again, I don't think that we have to give up appreciating the ways that resistance (and its related terms) play a vital part in black American history, but I also think that we can be careful about the ways that resistance serves as such a dominant catch-all for thinking about blackness. Sometimes it feels that for all of the ways that our thinking about blackness has changed, that the equivalence between blackness and resistance is not one of them.

Gate: What role does Quiet, as a paradigm, play in your life? Have you used Quiet or related concepts to engender an outcome? The result?

KQ: Ah, I was intentional about not making any personal or biographical references in the book; my life is not interesting enough to be useful in this way. But more than this: I was trying to avoid the idea that Quiet might be connected with behavior-as if it were a synonym of silence, a kind of inaction or a less-expressive and less-attractive action; I wanted Quiet to stand as a concept, a habit of being, a metaphor for the wildness and wideness of one's inner life.

But, of course, Quiet, in all kinds of forms, is deeply important to my life, to how I think about my life and how I think about what kind of human being I am, am becoming, want to become. There are ways that my racial identity (not alone but in concert with gender and other identities)-the way race seems to shape how people interact with me-is in conflict with what I might call my Quiet. That is, I spend a lot of time thinking about and through my inner sensibilities, which organizes much of how I live and try to live; and yet, this self-concept is often different from the ways that ideas of race seem to shape some of my social experiences.

Here's one specific way that a notion of Quiet has been useful to my life: being aware of the power of publicness in our society has allowed me to build, consciously, an ambivalent relationship to publicness, to try to find ways to manage the impact of publicness in my life. And I don't just mean professionally-managing public contexts or expectations-but personally, too. I am always looking for the intimate aspect of any public situation, since I think that the intimacy helps me to be more honest, more free, more capable in whatever interaction. This has informed my teaching in the classroom, for example.

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Kevin Quashie on "The Sovereignty of Quiet"

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African American culture is often considered expressive, dramatic, and even defiant, notes Quashie. Quiet is a metaphor for the inner life, and as such, enables a more nuanced understanding of black culture. Quashie will discuss The Sovereignty of Quiet on Tuesday, Sept. 25, at 4:30 p.m. in Neilson Browsing Room.

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Table of Contents

What does the word Leviathan mean?

What does Leviathan symbolize in the Bible?

This article was most recently revised and updated by

Leviathan, Hebrew Livyatan, in Jewish mythology, a primordial sea serpent. Its source is in prebiblical Mesopotamian myth, especially that of the sea monster in the Ugaritic myth of Baal ( see Yamm). In the Old Testament, Leviathan appears in Psalms 74:14 as a multiheaded sea serpent that is killed by God and given as food to the Hebrews in the wilderness. In Isaiah 27:1, Leviathan is a serpent and a symbol of Israel's enemies, who will be slain by God. In Job 41, it is a sea monster and a symbol of God's power of creation.

Amy Tikkanen.

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Leviathan, Hebrew Livyatan, in Jewish mythology, a primordial sea serpent. Its source is in prebiblical Mesopotamian myth, especially that of the sea monster in the Ugaritic myth of Baal (see Yamm). In the Old Testament, Leviathan appears in Psalms 74:14 as a multiheaded sea serpent that is killed by God and given as food to the Hebrews in the wilderness.

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World War II: 1941-1945

Because underwater acoustics was so important during WWI, the beginning of WWII marked the start of extensive research in underwater acoustics. However, during WWII, progress in underwater acoustics, as in other areas like radar and weapons, was shrouded in secrecy. At the end of WWII, the U.S. National Defense Research Committee published a Summary Technical Report that included four volumes on research discoveries. Still, much of the work done during the war was not published until many years later, if at all.

The initial underwater research effort during WWII focused on antisubmarine warfare, motivated by the grim successes of the German U-boats in sinking merchant ships in American waters. Later efforts were devoted to improving the capability of American submarines against the Japanese in the Pacific Ocean.

The effort focused on making careful measurements of factors that affected the performance of echo ranging systems, which came to be called "sonars" late in WWII as an acronym for SOund Navigation And Ranging. Things that affect the performance of sonar systems are described by what is now called the "sonar equation," which includes the source level, sound spreading, sound absorption, reflection losses, ambient noise, and receiver characteristics. The following sections describe three examples of the research done during WWII:

1. High frequency acoustics: Extensive research was focused on sound at frequencies of a few thousand Hertz or more and ranges of a few thousand meters. These frequencies and ranges were most relevant to the sonars used to locate submarines and mines.

2. Low-frequency, long-range sound propagation: This research would prove to have substantial impact on anti-submarine warfare during the Cold War that followed WWII.

3. Measurements of background noise levels in the sea: Ambient noise levels were measured, because this background noise level affects sonar performance.

High Frequency Acoustics: Deep Scattering Layer
Diffuse echoes from mid-depths in the ocean were observed on the relatively high-frequency sonars of WWII. In order to understand what might be causing these echoes, a series of experiments were conducted in 1942. A sonar transmitted 24 kHz signals downward in deep water. During daylight, scientists observed echoes from roughly horizontal layers near a depth of about 400 m. With nightfall, the observed echoes indicated that whatever was causing them rose toward the sea surface and spread over a greater depth range. The echoes migrated down again at dawn. The layer was called the "Deep Scattering Layer." The Deep Scattering Layer was found to be present nearly everywhere in the deep ocean(See foraging behavior related to the scattering layer).

It was suspected that the gas-filled swim bladders of fish might be responsible, but biologists towing nets at the depths from which the echoes came did not catch enough fish to scatter as much sound as observed. Following WWII, research showed that the deep scattering layer was made up of small organisms, including fish and jellyfish, with gas-filled swim bladders. It was found that the discrepancy between the number of organisms with swim bladders that were caught and the intensity of the echoes occurred because these organisms were able to avoid the nets towed by the biologists. The Deep Scattering Layer proved important in the later development of acoustical oceanography because it stimulated research on fish swim bladder resonance and more recently on invertebrates, especially some types of shrimp and squid ( Examples of air and cartilaginous structures in squid and cuttlefish that act as reflectors. This research also formed the basis for fish-finding sonars.
Low Frequency Sound Propagation: Discovery of the SOFAR Channel
In the spring of 1944, ocean scientists, Maurice Ewing and Joe Worzel, departed Woods Hole, Massachusetts, aboard the R/V Saluda to test a theory that predicted that low-frequency sound should be able to travel long distances in the deep ocean. A deep receiving hydrophone was hung from R/V Saluda. A second ship dropped 4-pound explosive charges set to explode deep in the ocean at distances up to 900 miles from the R/V Saluda's hydrophone. Ewing and Worzel heard, for the first time, the characteristic sound of a SOFAR (SOund Fixing And Ranging) transmission, consisting of a series of pulses building up to its climax:

https://dosits.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/SOFAR1.mp3

Even before WWII ended, the U.S. Navy experimented with the use of these long-range transmissions as a lifesaving tool. The notion was that survivors of a downed aircraft or sinking ship could drop a small explosive charge set to explode in the ocean sound channel. The arrival times of the signal at a number of widely-spaced, on-shore listening stations could then be used to compute the position of the life raft. The project was called SOFAR (for SOund Fixing and Ranging), giving the SOFAR channel its name.
Ambient Noise
Noise that interfered with the ability to hear underwater sounds had been a problem since the early 1900s when the Submarine Signal Company first installed underwater bells near lighthouses to warn mariners of navigational hazards. However, the systematic study of ambient noise did not begin until WWII. During WWII, acoustic mines were developed that were triggered by the sound of a passing ship. Accurate knowledge of ambient noise levels was needed in order to set the sound levels at which acoustic mines would be triggered, so that they would explode only when a ship was present. This need helped stimulate development of the calibrated receiving systems needed to measure ambient noise levels. Under the direction of Vern Knudsen, the director of the University of California Division of War Research, ambient noise measurements were made in coastal waters and harbors for frequencies from 1000 Hz to 50,000 Hz. They found that the noise level increases with increasing wind speed and wave height. For a given wind speed, the noise level decreases with increasing acoustic frequency. The curves summarizing their results became known as the "Knudsen curves."

The dependence of ambient noise on wind speed at frequencies between roughly 1000 Hz and 50,000 Hz implied that measurements of ambient noise might be used as a tool to determine wind speed over the ocean. This principle was exploited many years later in oceanographic instruments given the name , for "Wind Observations Through Ambient Noise."
Conclusion
The rapid advancement of underwater acoustics continued after WWII, with wartime developments leading to large-scale investigations of the ocean's basins. Coupled with advancements in technology (e.g. computers), underwater acoustics has become an important tool for uses such as seismic exploration, weather and climate research, and underwater communication. It has also continued to play a significant role in navigation, shipping and other marine operations. For more information about these practical applications as well as further research and advancements in underwater acoustics, please visit the other sections of the DOSITS website.

Additional Links on DOSITS

Additional Resources

References

Adams, K. T. (1942). Hydrographic Manual. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.

Bell, T. G. (1962). Sonar and Submarine Detection. U.S. Navy Underwater Sound Laboratory Report 545.

Bonneycastle, C. (1838). Notes of experiments made August 22-25, 1838 with a view of determining the depth of sea by echo. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 1, 39-41.

Clay, C. S., & Medwin, H. (1977). Acoustical Oceanography: Principles and Applications. New York: Wiley.

Ewing, M., & Worzel, J. L. (1948). Long-range sound transmission. In Geological Society of America Memoirs (Vol. 27, pp. 1-32). Geological Society of America. https://doi.org/10.1130/MEM27-3-p1

Frost, G. L. (2001). Inventing schemes and strategies: The making and selling of the Fessenden Oscillator. Technology and Culture, 42(3), 462-488. https://doi.org/10.1353/tech.2001.0109

Bass, H. E., & Cavanaugh, W. J. (2004). ASA at 75. Melville, New York: Acoustical Society of America.

Hersey, J. B. (1977). A chronicle of man's use of ocean acoustics. Oceanus, 20, 8-21.

Klein, E. (1968). Underwater sound and naval acoustical research and applications before 1939. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 43(5), 931-947. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.1910963

Lasky, M. (1977). Review of undersea acoustics to 1950. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 61(2), 283-297. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.381321

Lichte, H. (1919). Uber den einfluss horizontaler temperaturschichtung des seewassers auf die reichweite von unterwasserschallsignalen. Physik. Zeits, 17, 385.

Maury, M. F. (1858). The Physical Geography of the Sea, 6th ed. New York, NY: Harper and Brothers.

National Academy of Sciences (1999). Sounding out the ocean's secrets. National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved from http://www.nasonline.org/publications/beyond-discovery/

Urick, R. J. (1983). Principles of Underwater Sound, Third Edition (3rd edition, Reprint 2013). New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc.

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World War II: 1941-1945 Because underwater acoustics was so important during WWI, the beginning of WWII marked the start of extensive research in underwater acoustics. However, during WWII, progress in underwater acoustics, as in other areas like radar and weapons, was shrouded in secrecy. At the end of WWII, the U.S.

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A self-described "black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet," Audre Lorde dedicated both her life and her creative talent to confronting and addressing injustices of racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia. Lorde was born in New York City to West Indian immigrant parents. She attended Catholic schools before graduating from Hunter High School and published her first poem in Seventeen magazine while still a student there. Of her poetic beginnings Lorde commented in Black Women Writers: "I used to speak in poetry. I would read poems, and I would memorize them. People would say, well what do you think, Audre. What happened to you yesterday? And I would recite a poem and somewhere in that poem would be a line or a feeling I would be sharing. In other words, I literally communicated through poetry. And when I couldn't find the poems to express the things I was feeling, that's what started me writing poetry, and that was when I was twelve or thirteen."

Lorde earned her BA from Hunter College and MLS from Columbia University. She was a librarian in the New York public schools throughout the 1960s. She had two children with her husband, Edwin Rollins, a white, gay man, before they divorced in 1970. In 1972, Lorde met her long-time partner, Frances Clayton. She also began teaching as poet-in-residence at Tougaloo College. Her experiences with teaching and pedagogy-as well as her place as a Black, queer woman in white academia-went on to inform her life and work. Indeed, Lorde's contributions to feminist theory, critical race studies, and queer theory intertwine her personal experiences with broader political aims. Lorde articulated early on the intersections of race, class, and gender in canonical essays such as "The Master's Tools Will Not Dismantle the Master's House."

Lorde's early collections of poetry include The First Cities (1968), Cables to Rage (1970), and From a Land Where Other People Live (1972), which was nominated for a National Book Award. Later works, including New York Head Shop and Museum (1974), Coal (1976), and The Black Unicorn (1978), included powerful poems of protest. "I have a duty," Lorde once stated, "to speak the truth as I see it and to share not just my triumphs, not just the things that felt good, but the pain, the intense, often unmitigating pain." Lorde's later poems were often assembled from personal journals. Explaining the genesis of "Power," a poem about the police shooting of a ten-year-old black child, Lorde discussed her feelings when she learned that the officer involved had been acquitted: "A kind of fury rose up in me; the sky turned red. I felt so sick. I felt as if I would drive this car into a wall, into the next person I saw. So I pulled over. I took out my journal just to air some of my fury, to get it out of my fingertips. Those expressed feelings are that poem."

Her poetry, and "indeed all of her writing," according to contributor Joan Martin in Black Women Writers (1950-1980): A Critical Evaluation, "rings with passion, sincerity, perception, and depth of feeling." Concerned with modern society's tendency to categorize groups of people, Lorde fought the marginalization of such categories as "lesbian" and "black woman." She was central to many liberation movements and activist circles, including second-wave feminism, civil rights and Black cultural movements, and struggles for LGBTQ equality. In particular, Lorde's poetry is known for the power of its call for social and racial justice, as well as its depictions of queer experience and sexuality. As she told interviewer Charles H. Rowell in Callaloo: "My sexuality is part and parcel of who I am, and my poetry comes from the intersection of me and my worlds... [White, arch-conservative senator] Jesse Helms's objection to my work is not about obscenity ... or even about sex. It is about revolution and change."

Lorde was a noted prose writer as well as poet. Her account of her struggle to overcome breast cancer and mastectomy, The Cancer Journals (1980), is regarded as a major work of illness narrative. In The Cancer Journals, Lorde confronts the possibility of death. Recounting this personal transformation led Lorde to address the silence surrounding cancer, illness, and the lived experience of women. For example, Lorde explained her decision not to wear a prosthesis after undergoing a mastectomy in the Journals: "Prosthesis offers the empty comfort of 'Nobody will know the difference.' But it is that very difference which I wish to affirm, because I have lived it, and survived it, and wish to share that strength with other women. If we are to translate the silence surrounding breast cancer into language and action against this scourge, then the first step is that women with mastectomies must become visible to each other."

Lorde's 1982 novel, Zami: A New Spelling of My Name, was described by its publishers as a "biomythography, combining elements of history, biography and myth." Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (1984) collected Lorde's nonfiction prose and has become a canonical text in Black studies, women's studies, and queer theory. Another collection of essays, A Burst of Light (1988), won the National Book Award. The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde was published in 1997.

In 1981 Lorde and fellow writers Cherríe Moraga and Barbara Smith founded Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, which was dedicated to furthering the writings of black feminists. Lorde would also become increasingly concerned over the plight of black women in South Africa under apartheid, creating Sisterhood in Support of Sisters in South Africa and remaining an active voice on behalf of these women throughout the remainder of her life. Lorde addressed her concerns to not only the United States but the world, encouraging a celebration of the differences that society instead used as tools of isolation. As Allison Kimmich noted in Feminist Writers, "Throughout all of Audre Lorde's writing, both nonfiction and fiction, a single theme surfaces repeatedly. The black lesbian feminist poet activist reminds her readers that they ignore differences among people at their peril ... Instead, Lorde suggests, differences in race or class must serve as a 'reason for celebration and growth.'"

Lorde's honors and awards included a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. A professor of English at John Jay College and Hunter College, Lorde was poet laureate of New York from 1991-1992. Warrior Poet (2006), by Alexis De Veaux, is the first full-length biography of Audre Lorde.

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A self-described "black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet," Audre Lorde dedicated both her life and her creative talent to confronting and addressing injustices of racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia. Lorde was born in New York City to West Indian immigrant parents. She attended Catholic schools...

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Adorable Seal Cuddle Puddle! Watch what happens...

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The 1979 Third World Lesbian and Gay Conference (p. 162)

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The 1979 Third World Lesbian and Gay Conference (p. 162)

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Quote from Audre Lorde at the Conference

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Quote from Audre Lorde at the Conference

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Successfully communicating with others in American Sign Language (ASL) starts with learning to sign the manual alphabet, numbers 1 through 10, important expressions, and important one-word questions. And because good communication also involves manners, learning some basic do's and don'ts of Deaf etiquette is also helpful.

Signing the manual alphabet

Learning the manual alphabet in ASL will help you when you don't know a sign as you begin communicating. If you don't know the sign for something, you need to use the manual alphabet to spell the word, or fingerspell. Check out and practice the manual alphabet:

Note: If you need to fingerspell a word that has two letters that are the same, make a small bounce between the letters or simply slide the repeated letter over slightly.

Signing numbers 1 through 10

In ASL, knowing how to sign the cardinal (counting) numbers helps you in everyday situations like banking and making appointments. (The video below shows you how to sign numbers beyond one through ten.)

Pay attention to the way your palm faces when you sign numbers. For 1 through 5, your palm should face yourself. For 6 though 9, your palm should face out toward the person who's reading the sign.

Signing essential expressions

Practice signing these basic expressions in ASL to meet and greet people, join in on conversations, answer questions, and be polite and courteous.

One-word questions in American Sign Language

Signing one-word questions in ASL is a way to initiate small talk, get to know people, and gather information. When you sign these one-word questions, look inquisitive; the facial expression will come naturally when you are genuinely interested. Also, tilt your head and lean forward a little as you sign the question.

Deaf etiquette dos and don'ts

As you become more confident in your ability to communicate through ASL and begin to meet Deaf acquaintances and form friendships, keep some simple etiquette dos and don'ts in mind.
Dos:

To get a Deaf person's attention, tap them on the shoulder or flick the light switch.

Let a Deaf person know that you can hear and that you're learning ASL.

If you're at a Deaf social function, allow the Deaf friend you came with to introduce you to others.

Introduce yourself using your first and last name.

Converse about sports, the weather, politics, pop culture, or whatever else you'd discuss with your hearing friends.

Don'ts:

Don't barge into a Deaf person's house because you think they can't hear the doorbell.

Avoid ordering for a Deaf person in a restaurant, unless they ask you to do so.

Never try to correct a Deaf person's signing or lecture them that they don't sign the way your instructor does.

Don't initiate a conversation about a Deaf person's hearing loss. Asking such questions implies that you think of the person as broken or inferior.

About This Article

This article is from the book:

About the book authors:

Adan R. Penilla II, PhD, NIC, NAD IV, CI/CT, SC:L, ASLTA, teaches American Sign Language at Colorado State University and is a freelance interpreter for the Colorado court system. Angela Lee Taylor has taught ASL for Pikes Peak Community College and the Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind.

This article can be found in the category:

Successfully communicating with others in American Sign Language (ASL) starts with learning to sign the manual alphabet, numbers 1 through 10, important expressions, and important one-word questions. And because good communication also involves manners, learning some basic do's and don'ts of Deaf etiquette is also helpful.

Learning the manual alphabet in ASL will help you when you don't know a sign as you begin communicating. If you don't know the sign for something, you need to use the manual alphabet to spell the word, or fingerspell. Check out and practice the manual alphabet:

Note: If you need to fingerspell a word that has two letters that are the same, make a small bounce between the letters or simply slide the repeated letter over slightly.

In ASL, knowing how to sign the cardinal (counting) numbers helps you in everyday situations like banking and making appointments. (The video below shows you how to sign numbers beyond one through ten.)

Pay attention to the way your palm faces when you sign numbers. For 1 through 5, your palm should face yourself. For 6 though 9, your palm should face out toward the person who's reading the sign.

Practice signing these basic expressions in ASL to meet and greet people, join in on conversations, answer questions, and be polite and courteous.

Signing one-word questions in ASL is a way to initiate small talk, get to know people, and gather information. When you sign these one-word questions, look inquisitive; the facial expression will come naturally when you are genuinely interested. Also, tilt your head and lean forward a little as you sign the question.

As you become more confident in your ability to communicate through ASL and begin to meet Deaf acquaintances and form friendships, keep some simple etiquette dos and don'ts in mind.
Dos:

To get a Deaf person's attention, tap them on the shoulder or flick the light switch.

Let a Deaf person know that you can hear and that you're learning ASL.

If you're at a Deaf social function, allow the Deaf friend you came with to introduce you to others.

Introduce yourself using your first and last name.

Converse about sports, the weather, politics, pop culture, or whatever else you'd discuss with your hearing friends.

Don'ts:

Don't barge into a Deaf person's house because you think they can't hear the doorbell.

Avoid ordering for a Deaf person in a restaurant, unless they ask you to do so.

Never try to correct a Deaf person's signing or lecture them that they don't sign the way your instructor does.

Don't initiate a conversation about a Deaf person's hearing loss. Asking such questions implies that you think of the person as broken or inferior.

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American Sign Language For Dummies Cheat Sheet - dummies

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Successfully communicating with others in American Sign Language (ASL) starts with learning to sign the manual alphabet, numbers 1 through 10, important expressions, and important one-word questions. And because good communication also involves manners, learning some basic do's and don'ts of Deaf etiquette is also helpful.

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Mickalene Thomas' "A Little Taste of Outside Love" 

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Mickalene Thomas' "A Little Taste of Outside Love" 