Dr. Au delivered a speech entitled “Harbor porpoise biosonar: A proxy for the finless porpoise” during his visit to IHB on May 24.

Dr. Whitlow W.L Au from Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, University of Hawaii paid a visit to the Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences during May 23 and 24.  

Accompanied by Prof. WANG Ding, principal investigator of the Research Group of Conservation Biology of Aquatic Animals, Dr. Au visited the Baiji Dolphinarium and discussed with IHB scholars on the possible cooperation to investigate the biosonar of Yangtze finless porpoises.  

On May 24, Dr. Au delivered a speech entitled “Harbor porpoise biosonar: A proxy for the finless porpoise”. He vividly introduced the the biosonar of Harbor porpoise, covering the Hearing charicteristics and echolocation signals, the signal generation and propagation in the dolphin head ,transmission beam pattern and directivity, target detection capability and fish discrimination which aroused widely interest. 

Dr. Au is a top expert in the field of dolphin biosonar. As the chief scientist of marine mammal research program at Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, Hawaii University, Dr. Au also serves as associate editor of Journal of the Acoustical Society of America and Animal Bioacoustics and was the president of Acoustical Society of America for the year 2009-2010. His book The Sonar of Dolphins has become a classic literature in the field of dolphin biosonar research.