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Figure 1. Examples of the Discovery of Sound in the Sea (DOSITS) home pages from 2006 (top) and 2021 (bottom). Images courtesy of Christopher Knowlton.
Rhode Island) in 2000 to assist with the production of a public friendly website on the topic of using sound underwater. In turn, Vigness-Raposa approached me and my team at the University of Rhode Island Gradu- ate School of Oceanography, Narragansett, Rhode Island, due to our expertise in translating complex science for nonexperts, and the DOSITS team was established. Vig- ness-Raposa and I were successful in securing funding from the Office of Naval Research, Arlington, Virginia, to develop the first DOSITS website. This early DOSITS site (Figure 1) provided content on the basic science asso- ciated with underwater acoustics, and the content was written at the education level of the average newspaper reader so that it could be understandable by the public.
A decision was made by the DOSITS project leaders to draw exclusively from peer-reviewed literature for DOSITS web and print content. Supplemental content from governmental reports has been allowed when nec- essary. The DOSITS Scientific Advisory Panel (AP) was established to review all content created by the team and
to suggest new content for inclusion on the site. For 20 years, the DOSITS AP has met each year for two 2.5- day sessions to review and edit all DOSITS content and materials. In addition, the AP members often assist with content development when their expertise is needed.
Beginning in 2000, a core AP, composed of Peter Worces- ter, Kurt Fistrup, Peter Scheifele, and James Miller, was joined by subject-matter experts from the underwater acoustics community as needed for content review. Fol- lowing this, the core AP was joined by Darlene Ketten, Arthur Popper, and Danielle Cholewiak. In addition to the DOSITS core AP members, DOSITS content has been reviewed by over 45 members of the underwater acoustics community, and resources, images, and sound files have been provided by dozens more. The success of the DOSITS project has mainly been due to the integrity of the scientific content of DOSITS resources and the goodwill of the underwater acoustics community.
Although DOSITS began with a single educational pur- pose, the project quickly grew. To meet the needs of educators, media and news professionals, and decision makers, the DOSITS team has conducted content and resource needs assessments of these communities. Key content and resources have been developed based on these assessments, including structured tutorials, iBooks (see dosits.org/book), and an annual webinar series.
Since 2013, the DOSITS team has worked with the inter- national regulator/decision-maker community to provide syntheses of the latest peer-reviewed science. The DOSITS annual webinar series for decision makers is a popular edu- cation medium for this community, with webinars routinely attended by hundreds of participants. The 2020 four-part webinar series (see acousticstoday.org/dosits-webinars) on (1) “Fundamentals of Underwater Sound,” (2) “Review of the NMFS Regulatory Approach to Underwater Noise,” (3) “How Passive Acoustics Data Are Used to Inform the Decision-Making Process,” and (4) “Regulation of Under- water Noise: An International Comparison” had over 1,465 individual webinar connections from 39 countries, and many of these connections provided access to groups of participants. The webinars are archived online follow- ing the live interactions and are a well-used resource. For example, the number of Internet connections to the live April 2021 webinar “Passive Acoustic Monitoring Over- view-Applications for Marine Mammals and Fishes” was
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