Seeking the elusive call of the endangered Cthulhu

December 29, 2011 7:34 PM

Listening to the Deep-Ocean Environment allows you to access ambient ocean noise feeds from around the globe. [via]

The [via] link gives an excellent summary of what LIDO is all about, as well as the issues researchers have come up against with the US Navy. Also check out Neptune Canada's similar projects.

posted by Burhanistan (9 comments total)

Bloop?
posted by The otter lady at 7:43 PM on December 29, 2011 [2 favorites]

Love the interface. "We're sorry, that station is unavailable at this time." [Yes|No]
posted by scalefree at 7:49 PM on December 29, 2011

Bloop?

Bloop.
posted by curious nu at 8:04 PM on December 29, 2011 [2 favorites]

It was too quiet to hear anything on the station I got. I wanted whales or seals or torpedoes or something.

Ping!
posted by cjorgensen at 8:13 PM on December 29, 2011 [1 favorite]

I'm thankful for this post because the Bloop link led to this description of another un-identified sound called The Hum.

I heard that hum several times, in very remote campsites while on a long kayaking trip in Southern Patagonia. It was without any doubt the most quiet environment I've ever experienced, which was something in itself (also the wettest and hungriest I've ever been, but that is another matter), but that hum would be just on the edge of perception laying in the tent at night. I had the feeling it came from very far away, under water. At the time I thought it was possibly a distant ship's propeller, but it never changed in a way that indicated it was any nearer or farther away.

One other interesting thing about that trip was that the further South we went, the more I felt the water's surface was tilted down to the South. It seems trivial now but it was very distinct at the time.

Anyway, thanks for bringing back memories of the inscrutable.
posted by Mei's lost sandal at 8:22 PM on December 29, 2011 [6 favorites]

When I first clicked on the link, I totally thought it was a live feed and that I had arrived at the EXACT MOMENT a whale was swimming past the camera. (Spoiler Alert: it's not and it wasn't.)
posted by WaspEnterprises at 8:23 PM on December 29, 2011 [1 favorite]

For some reason this makes me feel nervous. Deep water unnerves me a bit, and I feel like I'm just waiting for something to come up to the microphone to say boo.
posted by SpacemanStix at 8:50 PM on December 29, 2011

I sometimes bump into a bloke who works aboard a submarine. He once told me that in shallowish waters, just before dawn on the surface, they'll occasionally shut everything down. Still and silent. The whole crew then sits wherever they can find a place, and listens for half an hour to the noises that come through the hull. He called what they (sometimes, not always) hear the dawn chorus. When I asked what it sounded like, his face lit up, and he said "Clicks and whirs and ticks, and if we're really lucky we hear a whale.. it's.. it's the ocean waking up!"

I failed to understand how he might be so thoroughly enraptured by it until just now. Thanks.
posted by Ahab at 10:18 PM on December 29, 2011 [6 favorites]

Man, I get some night gas on the ONE NIGHT some damn observation team is pointing their recorders at my trench, and now every time I go out some wiseacre is all like "Bloooooop? HahahahahaaaaAAAAGGHGHHHGHGHHH" as my tentacles pull his soul out through his sinus cavity.
posted by FatherDagon at 1:23 AM on December 30, 2011 [2 favorites]