Photo of the Week: Listening off La Jolla

Assistant research oceanographer Ana Širović (right) of Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego watches Thursday as crewmembers aboard research vessel Sally Ride recover a package of acoustics equipment that was deployed in the ocean off La Jolla earlier this year.

Funded by the Office of Naval Research, Širović's project is intended to improve understanding of the blue and fin whale populations in the Southern California bight.

Širović's website features a variety of audio recordings of whales and other undersea creatures.

This mooring was one of several recovered during SR1614, a cruise for which the chief scientist was Scripps graduate student Madeleine Hamann as part of the UC Ship Funds Program, which provides significant support to enable graduate and undergraduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and early career faculty to pursue independent research and instruction at sea aboard Scripps ships. (A story on the student-led cruise is in the works.)

Related Image Gallery: Photo of the Week 2016

Related Video: At sea aboard the R/V Sally Ride: Ana Sirovic, research scientist