The University of Southern Denmark (SDU) is based in Odense. The Department of Biology runs a marine biological laboratory in Kerteminde, 20 km from Odense. Next door to the laboratory is Fjord&Bælt, an educational organization teaching tourists and school children about the local marine environment as well as local marine mammals. Two trained harbour porpoises and three trained harbour seals are housed in outdoor pools at Fjord&Bælt. Through a collaboration agreement, scientists from University of Southern Denmark, Aarhus University and Hannover University perform scientific projects on the porpoises and seals. The marine laboratory currently also houses two grey seals and two cormorants for investigations of their hearing abilities in air and under water. The research related to marine mammals at the laboratory focuses on the echolocation and hearing abilities in harbour porpoises, the acoustic behaviour and hearing abilities of seals, as well as acoustic predator-prey interactions between marine mammals and their prey. Besides, there is a large spectrum of outreach activities for students as well as high school pupils.
Within Marine Mammals, the SDU is mainly involved in developing and conducting teacher trainings and summer schools. The Project Team is also responsible for the development of outreach material and teaching units, e.g. on marine mammals and hearing / echolocation, taking into account the existing high school curricula.
See: Marine Biological Research Centre at www.sdu.dk
Team
Associate Professor Magnus Wahlberg
Dr. Tòrur Andreassen
Dr. Kirstin Anderson Hansen
Lars Seidelin
Sara Ortiz
