Exerimental Measures of Blast and Acoustic Trauma in Marine Mammals
Abstract
Ears are the bell weathers of pressure induced damage. Equally important, they are a crucial sensory system for marine mammals. Although marine mammal ears are similar to those of land mammals, there are also sufficient differences to prevent extrapolation of damage criteria from air adapted ears to marine systems. Therefore, understanding how intense pressures affect marine mammal ears is required in order to properly mitigate effects from man made impulse and explosive devices. Because hearing loss and auditory system trauma from blasts and intense, short term impulsive sources depend essentially upon mechanical responses of ears, some of these effects are inducible and measurable post-mortem. Properly preserved post-mortem ears have been shown to have mechanical properties isomorphic with those of live ears. This project will determine intense pressure effects on marine mammal ears specifically by exposing post-mortem specimens of marine mammals to underwater blast sources and measuring their auditory system mechanical responses in situ.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 1999
- Accession Number
- ADA367194
Entities
People
- Darlene R. Ketten
Organizations
- Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution