Peter TYACK

Peter Tyack is a Professor of Marine Mammal Biology at the University of St Andrews and co-chair of the Scientific Committee of the International Quiet Ocean Experiment. His research focuses on behavioral ecology, especially acoustic communication and social behavior in marine mammals. He has studied the role of vocal learning in reproductive advertisement in baleen whales and individually distinctive contact calls in toothed whales, and echolocation in deep diving toothed whales. He has developed new methods to sample behavior continuously from marine mammals, including the development of sound-and-orientation recording tags, and has used these to study communication and echolocation. He has developed a series of studies on responses to anthropogenic sounds, including effects of oil exploration on baleen and sperm whales, and the effects of naval sonar on toothed whales. He chaired a committee of the US National Academy of Sciences Ocean Studies Board which wrote a 2017 report on “Approaches to Understanding the Cumulative Effects of Stressors on Marine Mammals.”