Università degli Studi di Pavia

Centro Interdisciplinare di Bioacustica e Ricerche Ambientali

Via Taramelli 24 - 27100 Pavia - Italy
email : cibra@unipv.it


European Nature Conservation Year - 1995

Click here to see a larger view of the poster

Council of
                Europe ENCY logo

More than 25 years ago, the Council of Europe launched its first nature conservation campaign, making Europeans generally aware of the overriding need to protect our environment.
Today, existing threats to our environment are so serious that nature conservation is needed, not just in the protected areas, but comprehensively throughout Europe. This is why the Council of Europe has decided to make 1995 "European Nature Conservation Year", with a special emphasis on conservation outside the protected areas.
The time has now come to extend nature conservation to the areas where people live and work. The campaign will accordingly promote a new understanding of nature: even in populated areas, wildlife can survive and prosper, as long as it is respected. One vital objective of the campaign will be making sure that the concepts of natural environment and biodiversity are allowed for in every human activity.

CIBRA, in collaboration with other national and international institutions, partecipates to the European Nature Conservation Year with the following activities:

logo aecn95 01

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Research cruises in the Mediterranean Sea to study cetacean acoustics and behaviour

The activity of the Laboratory of Marine Bioacoustics focuses on the development of research projects on the acoustic communication in marine animals, the study of practical applications in regard to the monitoring and censusing of cetaceans, the development of advanced methods of sound analysis based on digital signal processing, the establishment of a Sound Library of Mediterranean Cetaceans as well as the technical support to other institutions involved in bioacoustical research.
In 1995 our work has been included in the European Nature Conservation Year (ENCY) program by the Council of Europe. Within this frame the Italian Navy set up a cooperative research program to apply its technologies to acoustic research on cetaceans and to support the study and protection of the marine environment.
 

Research activities in collaboration with the Italian Navy for the study and protection of the Mediterranean Sea

 In 1994, within the ENCY 95 (European Nature Conservation Year) program, the Italian Navy set up a cooperative research program with Universities and other research institutions to give logistic support and to apply his technologies to the study and protection of the marine environment. The project includes a research program on cetacean acoustics, mainly dealing with the two larger species in the Mediterranean Sea, the fin whale Balaenoptera physalus and the sperm whale Physeter macrocephalus (= catodon).
The ITNavy project will possibly lead to a severe improvement in underwater acoustic research as it has happened in the North Atlantic within the US Navy Project on "Dual Uses" of military technologies and in providing information relevant to the conservation of cetaceans.
 
 

 

 

Organization of an international workshop on Underwater Bioacoustics

An international workshop has been organized to explore a wide range of topics in underwater bioacoustics. The workshop focused on three major areas: 1) acoustic communication and echolocation in aquatic animals, 2) acoustic methods applied to environmental research, and 3) biophysical and technical aspects of underwater acoustics.
Individual topics included the emerging themes of the impact of underwater noise of acoustic tomography, and of the importance of sound libraries; other topics discussed were about hearing and sound production, social behaviour and echolocation, and a report on underwater acoustic research in the Mediterranean Sea.

The proceedings of the workshop have been published by the Journal of Marine and Freshwater Behaviour and Physiology, 1997, vol. 29 and vol. 30.
 
 

 

Ettore Majorana Centre for Scientific Culture
International School of Ethology

9th Workshop - Erice, Sicily: 4-9 november 1994
UNDERWATER BIOACOUSTICS:

Behavioural, Environmental & Evolutionary Perspectives

Director of the School of Ethology:
Prof Danilo Mainardi
Dipartimento di Scienze Ambientali
Università di Venezia

Directors of the Workshop:
Prof Patrizia Torricelli
Dipartimento di Scienze Ambientali, Università di Venezia
Prof Michael L. Fine
Department of Biology, Virginia Commonwealth University, USA
Dr Gianni Pavan
Centro Interdisciplinare di Bioacustica, Università di Pavia
Dr Marco Lugli
Dipartimento di Biologia e Fisiologia Generali, Università di Parma

Erice 1994 - photo of
                  participants

Talks

UNDERWATER SOUND: EXPANDING RELEVANCE TO BEHAVIORAL FUNCTIONS
Arthur A. Myrberg, Jr.

HEARING IN AQUATIC ANIMALS
A.D. Hawkins

SOUND LIBRARIES AND BIOACOUSTIC RESEARCH
Richard D. Ranft

ENDOCRINOLOGY OF SOUND PRODUCTION IN FISHES
Michael L. Fine

AGONISTIC BEHAVIOUR AND FIGHTING ASSESSMENT IN VOCALIZING FISH
Friedrich Ladich

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF ACOUSTIC COMMUNICATION IN GOBIIDS
Patrizia Torricelli, Marco Lugli, Gianni Pavan

ACOUSTIC AND ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION IN MORMYRID FISH
John D. Crawford

LISTENING TO MARINE ORGANISMS FROM SURFACE SUSPENDED ACOUSTIC
RECEIVERS
John L. Spiesberger

ACOUSTICS OF ECHOLOCATING DOLPHINS AND SMALL WHALES
Whitlow W.L. Au

SOUND PRODUCTION FROM BLUE, FINBACK, AND MINKE WHALES; IMPLICATIONS FOR BASIC RESEARCH AND ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING
Christopher W. Clark, David K. Mellinger

ACOUSTIC RESEARCH ON CETACEANS IN THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA
Gianni Pavan, J. Fabrizio Borsani

BIOACOUSTICS: A TOOL FOR THE CONSERVATION OF CETACEANS IN THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA
Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara, Jonathan Gordon

THE DEVELOPMENT OF DETERRENT DEVICES DESIGNED TO REDUCE THE MORTALITY OF SMALL CETACEANS IN COMMERCIAL FISHING NETS
A. David Goodson

THE INFLUENCE OF MAN-MADE NOISE AND OTHER HUMAN ACTIONS ON THE BEHAVIOUR OF CETACEANS
W. John Richardson, Bernd Wursig

UNDERWATER COMMUNICATION IN THE HIPPO
William E. Barklow



CIBRA Home Page

Page compiled by G.Pavan, 1995. Revised August 2005