Using Sound to Connect People to Green Bay

On a sunny morning in mid-June, the Phoenix, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay’s research vessel, headed out onto the bay. Aboard were Sea Grant researchers Emily Tyner and Bill Sallak and a small mound of recording equipment. Tyner and Sallak’s project is associated with the development of a national estuarine research reserve on the bay. They planned to record natural noises from the bay, particularly bird sounds from the Cat Island Chain. They hope their audio project will connect the community to the bay, which has been shunned in the past due to environmental issues. The boat tour was only supposed to last for three hours but like in the theme song for the “Gilligan’s Island” television show, a mishap was involved.

Researchers investigate the impact of water birds on Green Bay

Robert Wolf and Amy Howe with UW-Green Bay are coordinating a small army of students and government agency researchers to count and observe the behavior of birds that eat fish in the lower Green Bay area around Cat Island, an area that Howe likens to the “Serengeti of Lake Michigan” due to the sheer abundance of wildlife.