 Prof. Tomonari Akamatsu, Waseda University
Personal profile: Tomonari Akamatsu is a professor at Waseda University. He was educated in theoretical physics at Tohoku University and received Ph.D. (agriculture) from Nihon University in 1996. His majors are underwater bioacoustics and passive acoustic monitoring of aquatic creatures. He was a senior researcher of National Research Institute of Fisheries Science until 2019 and temporarily studied at National Institute of Polar Research and Thomas Hunt Morgan School of Biological Sciences, University of Kentucky as a visiting scholar. He was a director at Policy Research Department of Ocean Policy Research Institute of Sasakawa Peace Foundation until 2023. He was an associate editor of Journal of the Marine Acoustic Society of Japan, Bioinspiration & Biomimetics, Journal of Ethology and committee member of marine environmental assessment organized by the Ministry of the Environment, NEDO, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. He is a member of cetacean and sirenian specialists groups of IUCN, ISO/TC43/SC3, IEEE/OES Japan chapter. He serves for the Technical committee of Animal Bioacoustics of The Acoustical Society of America, Nominations and Elections Committee of The Society for Marine Mammalogy and various academic services. He was awarded competitive research grants such as CEST, KAKENHI and BRAIN and published over 150 peer reviewed papers and book chapters.
Presentation title: Underwater soundscape research for the sustainable ocean managements
Abstract: The concept of soundscape, defined as “ambient sound in terms of its spatial, temporal, and frequency attributes, and the types of sources contributing to the sound field” (ISO 18405:2017, ISO, 2017), encompasses biophony, geophony, and anthrophony. Soundscape is highly variable depending on location, time of day, season, and ocean environment, making it a valuable tool for assessing the impact of anthropogenic marine engineering activities. For instance, many species of aquatic organisms produce sounds that reflect their species or family characteristics. Passive acoustic monitoring is widely employed to track their presence, distribution, and behavior. Soundscape captures both the effects of engineering activities (anthrophony) and the responses of aquatic life (biophony). With human impacts on the ocean ecosystem becoming increasingly significant, the soundscape of the ocean promises to be a valuable asset for sustainable ocean management, particularly in offshore and deep-sea regions, which represent the frontier of ocean resource development. |