On August 27, 2026, at 17:15:08.5, the right channel hydrophone at Orcasound Lab went silent. This hydrophone is one of two deployed some 2 weeks earlier. A sad event was that lightning struck close to here and the hydrophones deployed for the past 9-10 months were crisped. The strike also destroyed computers and AtoD boards and more. :–( New hydrophones from Aquarian were deployed and then, two or so weeks later, blam, one dies.

Why did this happen?

Here is a plot of the hydrophone amplitude over the last 7 minutes of the right channel’s life:

Here are the sound files for this plot. I separated the channels into two files so you can clearly listen to each.

( I have found it best to listen with headphones to hear the weird low frequency strumming.)

Left channel:

Right channel:

I have some notions about what may have happened but, I wonder if some of you careful listeners may come up with interesting suggestions. If you get any ideas, DB me, Val Veirs, at Zulip ( https://orcasound.zulipchat.com/ ) or send me an email vveirs at gmail dot com.