Acoustics workshop in Ensenada, Mexico

ENSENADA, Mexico — JASCO scientists Dr Jonathan Vallarta and Dr Melanie Austin are helping build Mexican scientific capacity and increase national interest in the field of underwater acoustics. In September, the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and the Center for Scientific Research and Higher Education at Ensenada (Centro de Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada, CICESE) hosted a three-day acoustic workshop at the UNAM campus in Ensenada, Mexico. Dr Austin and Dr Vallarta spent two days in the classroom with 14 students, and went offshore on day three to record the sounds of ships and marine mammals. Students were then taught to interpret the data they collected offshore. This collaboration of JASCO with UNAM and CICESE fits within an ongoing initiative to train a new generation of Mexican acousticians in the monitoring and interpretation of sound in the oceans.