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Navy completes military exercise study
The U.S. Navy and its partners recently completed two studies that monitored marine mammal responses to military exercises. The studies were conducted from April 20 to May 20 on the Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center (AUTEC) in northern Bahamas, and from July 15 to July 28 on the Southern California Offshore Range (SCORE) off Coronado, California.
Additional data is also being collected during biological and behavioural studies of marine mammals in the western Mediterranean Sea (MED-09) project underway since late July until early September, designed to understand the effects of anthropogenic sound on marine mammals. Follow-on studies are planned at AUTEC and SCORE, as well as the Navy?s other at-sea ranges over the next five years.
Unlike SCORE and AUTEC, MED-09 tests are being conduced through controlled exposure experiments, in which the animals? behaviour is measured before, during, and after specific sound exposures planned by the researchers, rather than sonar sounds generated during naval exercises.
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