Josh is a keen marine
enthusiast having worked with marine mammals
for the past 7 years. His interest in marine
ecology and animal behaviour took him to
James Cook University in Townsville,
Australia where he completed a degree in
marine biology with aspects of community
ecology on coral reefs. It was also here
that his interest in bioacoustics and marine
mammals started with his honours research
evaluating the feasibility of using acoustic
surveys to estimate relative abundance of
dolphin populations using Indo-Pacific
humpback dolphins as a model.
Josh has experience in
aerial, land and boat-based surveys of
marine mammals with skills in theodolite
tracking, acoustic tracking,
photoidentification, biopsy sampling and
boat driving. He has been an observer on
repeated dugong aerial surveys in the Torres
Straits and the northern and southern Great
Barrier Reef in Australia, recording dugong
and other marine mammal sightings. As a
research assistant he worked over two years
on an Earthwatch project in Qld. Australia
exploring the behavioural ecology of
bottlenose dolphins and effects of boat
traffic on Pacific humpback dolphin acoustic
behaviour. As a volunteer he assisted with
land and photoidentification of southern
right whales for a biopsy project aimed at
elucidating the genetic stocks of the slowly
recovering population of southern right
whales in South Australia. Pursuing his
interests in bioacoustics he undertook an
internship in Hawaii with the Hawaii’s
Humpback Whale Research Program that
provided many of the skills necessary for
studying marine mammal behaviour at sea.
This field experience on humpback whales led
him to his doctoral research that he is
currently finishing, which investigates the
function of song in humpback whales. His
behavioural research on song function is a
part of a larger project known as HARC
(Humpback whale Acoustic Research
Collaboration) involving the University of
Queensland, the Defence Science and
Technology Organisation, and two American
institutions, the Scripps Institution of
Oceanography and the Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution aimed at better
understanding how humpback whales interact
with their acoustic environment.
Josh’s interest in
passive acoustic monitoring has more
recently led to consultancy work in offshore
marine seismic operations as an MMO on 3D
marine seismic surveys.
Click here for Josh’s
University research group webpage
http://www.uq.edu.au/berg/
