Acoustical oceanography meets bioacoustics: Teaching ocean acoustics to biologists and physicists at the University of Victoria

The graduate-level Ocean Acoustics course at the University of Victoria is targeted at students in different departments with diverse backgrounds, ranging from physics to biology. We lead the students through a series of lectures, discussions, and assignments to provide fundamental knowledge of acoustical oceanography and marine bioacoustics, with subjects ranging from acoustic propagation modelling and geophysical inverse theory to soundscape ecology and the impacts of underwater noise on marine life. Given the varied background of the students, we must balance the material so that the course covers physical concepts without being too “math heavy” for the biologists, and so the physicists can understand and appreciate the biology. We frame assignments around skills that the students can use in their graduate research, and also give the students opportunities to review scientific papers and give presentations to the class. We have taught this course for two years now, and students have come out with a deeper understanding of the physics of sound and how it is affects marine life, providing a good foundation for their graduate research in various aspects of underwater acoustics.