- Information gathering for dugong surveys in Shark Bay, North-Western Australia
（2011/7/7-7/15、Australia）
Research Institute for Humanity and Nature / Project researcher ,Kotaro Ichikawa
Local information on dugong surveys were gathered in Shark Bay, North-Western Australia for improvement of the RIHN project (Fig. 1). Dr. Nawata and Dr. Ichikawa participated in this trip. We were to go on a dugong observation trip on a research vessel to study the dugong distribution in the Shark Bay. But it was canceled because of the bad weather. We went to a local museum to study the outline of the dugong surveys in the focal area. The next day, I hired a kayak to conduct underwater sound recording. Because the weather condition was bad, I could only record the underwater sound for only 2 hours between 13:00-15:00 (Fig. 2). Although no sound from dugongs were not recorded, I could collect background noise, which is very important for acoustic surveys in the future.
This trip was useful because we collected a lot of information that can help our dugong acoustic surveys in Red sea coastal regions.
 (Fig. 1)Shark Bay |
 (Fig. 2)Underwater sound recording was conducted from a kayak. A research vessel for the dugong watching, which had been canceled because of the bad weather, can be seen in the figure. |