SEA Overview SEA, Inc. is an international company that delivers science to support conservation management and environmentally-responsible business decisions. With so many varied challenges facing our planet as a result of human populations and activities, there is little time to waste in either failing to respond or (worse) responding to the wrong things. With diverse, international experts and partners, we have extensive experience in science, research, engineering, conservation management, public education, and biological monitoring and mitigation of the adverse environmental impacts created by human industries. Using innovative technologies and proactive collaborations, SEA, Inc. is tackling difficult and exciting scientific issues with global implications, such as the effects of sound on marine life, sustainable energy development, and the interaction of various stressors within a changing global climate. The issue of how human sound affects marine life has been dominated by sonar systems and marine mammal strandings. However, we are increasingly realizing that other sounds, such as those associated with offshore energy development and chronic noise arising from other industrial activities such as commercial shipping; are also key considerations. So too are we realizing that passive listening tools for detecting marine life are vital tools in monitoring for marine life around industrial operations to identify impacts and ensure sustainable development. The work of SEA, Inc. is directly relevant to many global issues affecting the oceans. In addition to designing and conducting scientific work upon which important decisions can be based, SEA, Inc. provides this information directly to decision-makers, educators, and the general public in compelling and meaningful ways. We use innovative means of delivering scientific information to these very different entities in ways that retain and communicate the essential facts, but that are practically useful and helpful in effecting change. Dr. Brandon Southall Dr. Brandon Southall is President and Senior Scientist for Southall Environmental Associates, Inc. based in Santa Cruz, CA and a research associate with the University of California, Santa Cruz. He is currently involved in research to measure behavioral responses of marine mammals to various human sounds, primarily military sonar signals, the effects of impulsive noise on hearing in seals and sea lions in laboratory settings, efforts to implement quieting technologies on the largest commercial ships in the oceans, and developing environmentally-responsible ways of capturing offshore energy. Dr. Southall has an extensive background in both laboratory and field research on the effects of noise on marine mammals, and has worked directly in the policy and regulatory arenas within the U.S. and internationally on this issue. He has published over 30 peer-reviewed publications on hearing and the effects of noise on marine life and has given hundreds of presentations on the subject to technical, regulatory, Congressional, and international audiences. Brandon completed graduate studies at UCSC in 2002 on hearing and the effects of noise on seals and sea lions. He also conducted and continues fieldwork on northern elephant seal acoustic communication. From 2003 to 2009, Dr. Southall was a fisheries research biologist and director of NOAA's Ocean Acoustics Program, during which time he: was involved in the development of acoustic exposure criteria for marine mammals; organized two international symposia on shipping noise and marine mammals and was centrally involved in the formation of correspondence group on the shipping noise issue within the International Maritime Organization; provided technical advice on regulatory policies and mitigation strategies for minimizing noise impacts; and served as co-principal investigator of a behavioral response studies recently conducted in the Bahamas and Mediterranean Sea and similar efforts being planned in southern California. Select Research Partners Marine Acoustics, Inc. Pinniped Cognition and Sensory Systems Laboratory NOAA's Ocean Acoustics Program Cornell University, Bioacoustics Research Program Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Marine Mammal Program Duke University Marine Laboratory University of St. Andrews, Sea Mammal Research Unit University of South Florida Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Marine Physical Library Cascadia Research Collective Discovery of Sound in the Sea (DOSITS) U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Research Programs   ©2009 Southall Environmental Associates, Inc. All rights reserved. All research and images on this website are authorized under one of the following U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service permits: #1121-1900, #14251, #239-1481-00, #0172-1771-00, and #87-1743.