Behavioral Response Study

This is the report of the first behavioral response study to be carried out on beaked and pilot whales in which these animals were exposed to carefully measured doses of underwater sound while their responses were being measured. The study is seen as the first step in a series of similar experiments that are designed to safely identify the behavioral mechanisms that may be involved in the causal chain of events leading from exposure to some types of man-made underwater sound to mass strandings of beaked whales and to test whether this risk extends to other cetaceans.