The birds and the beeps: Clicks, chirps and calls are boosting conservation efforts

Bioacoustics researchers are using sound recordings to prevent whale-ship collisions and protect ecosystems.

A study co-authored by Lea Bouffaut at Cornell University's K Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics shows undersea fiberoptic cables can be repurposed to listen to marine life using distributed acoustic sensing (DAS).

More than 20,000 whales are killed each year by ship collisions; bioacoustics can alert crews to slow down and avoid fatal accidents.

A meeting in Delhi, spearheaded by Robin Vijayan at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Tirupati, discussed establishing a bioacoustics center in India.

Conservation bioacoustics originated in the 1920s with simple recorders for insect and bird calls, and now uses AI and sensors for wider environmental applications.