Under Green Island
(2014) ·
Under Green Island
Under Green Island [2:41 · download]

 

Drop a microphone anywhere in the world's oceans and you enter into a strange and wonderful universe of living sound.

For this recording I lowered a pair of hydrophones overboard from a Zodiac anchored in about 30 feet of water, just offshore from Green Island in Maine's Petit Manan National Wildlife Refuge. Listen for the crackle and pop of the ubiquitous snapping shrimp; the splashes of seals surfacing and diving nearby; the hoooot of the Petit Manan foghorn, just a few hundred yards away (but muffled by the heavy blanket of water); and the distant whine of propellers from fishing boats in the area.

 

This recording was made possible thanks to the masterful seamanship of geologist John Garver. Thank you, John!

Green-Island-web

The view from above: Green Island (foreground), along with its more famous neighbor, Petit Manan Island.