UH Tests Sonar On Sea Mammals

Wearing suction cups that pick up brain waves, Boris the dolphin obeys orders to put his head in a small ring underwater. A waterproof speaker dips into the water, sending out intermittent high-frequency signals. How Boris' brain waves respond to the sound is the focus of research under way at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology. Boris, a 20-year-old male bottlenose dolphin, demonstrated his role Friday morning to U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie and the news media as part of efforts to determine whether Navy sonar is harmful to marine mammals. Abercrombie said work by University of Hawaii scientists at Kaneohe Bay will help separate fact from fiction on the effects of sonar, deemed necessary to detect increasingly quiet foreign submarines...