85. Minke Whale Hearing Test

How do you complete a hearing test on a baleen whale? On this episode of Aquadocs, Dr. Michelle Greenfield-Feig interviews Dr. Craig Harms, professor of aquatic, zoo and wildlife medicine at North Carolina State University, about his fieldwork studies in Norway collecting hearing data on minke whales. The non-invasive hearing tests were conducted by placing sensors on the surface of the whale's skin that allowed a multi-national team of researchers to record the whale's brain waves when it heard a sound. The goal of this research is to better understand the impact of human induced noise on these whales and eventually establish regulatory guidelines to protect these animals.