An Idea That Echoed: The Unexpected Journey to an Open-Source Acoustic Database
It started with a simple connection - and the willingness to follow where that might lead. I was introduced to The Seabirds by a good friend, Daphne DeCelles. Daph and I worked together doing environmental consulting work in Florida, but she knew my background in marine mammal acoustics and research. She reached out one day and asked if I wanted to go on an Arctic expedition to do research on orcas. There’s only one answer to a question like that. Months later I found myself in Zoom calls and meet-ups with The Seabirds as we prepped for our upcoming Arctic adventure.
Part of these preparations included a call with Seabirds Co-founder, Ashley Bugge, to discuss potential hydrophones for the organization to purchase and acoustic data collection in general. I wouldn’t have guessed that a casual call with a fellow researcher, who I hardly knew, would take me down such an unexpected, exhilarating, and purposeful path.
I think maybe Ashley and I are quite good at fueling each other’s excitement, as we bounced thoughts back and forth and somehow lit fire to a much bigger idea. We went from “who can use our data?” to “wait, what if…”
There was no looking back after that.
What if we could create an open-source acoustic database—one that wasn’t just a collection of raw data but told comprehensive stories about what was happening in each of these unique, data-lacking, truly wild locations? Acoustics was just the tip of the iceberg - photos, videos, oceanographic data could come together to give anyone a 360* view of what previously seemed like a remote dot on a map.
Then, in a surreal culmination of events, we got the opportunity collaborate with one of the most influential environmental organizations in the world. Ashley and I sat down for a meeting with NOAA. (I mean seriously?! How was this even happening?) We discussed how the data collected during the Seabirds expeditions could feed into NOAA’s global database and the Seabirds could have a dedicated spot in NOAA’s system. It was a full-circle moment, one that underscored the power of collaboration, curiosity, and a willingness to follow ideas where they lead.
A casual conversation and a grassroots idea had grown into a partnership with worldwide reach and a new project with the goal of making ocean acoustics and data something anyone—researchers, educators, policymakers, and even the public—could engage and connect with.
The ocean is full of voices: whales singing across vast distances, fish communicating in clicks and pops, seabirds calling to one another over the waves. Each sound holds a piece of the puzzle in understanding ecosystems, climate change, and even human impact.
Now, as we move forward with our new partnerships and project Blue Echo: Tracing the Voices of the Sea, I can’t help but wonder… What else is possible when we listen—not just to each other, but to the world around us?
