Sound isn’t even Eric McRae’s primary field of study, but he’s nonetheless learned enough about it, through his other work, that he’ll be able to offer the public some interesting insights on sound, as it travels in the air and the water, through the Port Townsend Marine Science Center.

McRae serves as a Principal Electrical Engineer at the Applied Physics Laboratory of the University of Washington, and for the past 13 years, he’s spearheaded the design and operation of a project for the Ocean Observatories Initiative.

The project is Regional Cabled Array Shallow Profilers, which are reactive machines that operate autonomously undersea, for a year at a time.

As a result of his work, which has also included designed control software for other autonomous underwater vehicles, McRae has come to understand how sound is generated, transmitted and perceived in water, and how those differ from sound in the air.

McRae plans to pass on those insights through his lecture, “Did You Hear That? The Physics of Sound,” in the Chapel on Fort Worden State Park, at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 17, as part of the Marine Science Center’s “Future of Oceans” lecture series.

“Because of our environment and genetics, human beings don’t think a lot about sound and how we hear it, since we only hear a relatively small portion of the sound that’s out there, compared with many other species,” McRae said. “If that subject sounds intimidating, though, don’t worry, because I’m presenting it for the average person who hasn’t already studied sound.”

McRae was reluctant to spoil too much of his talk in advance, but he noted that he plans to cover not only how humans hear, but also how bats and Orca locate their food through sound.

“Not only does sound travel much faster through the water than the air, but it also carries much further through water than air,” McRae said. “There’s a whole world of acoustical environments to which we’re not naturally attuned, because even living along on a shoreline, we don’t just routinely dunk our heads under the water there.”

Even before McRae began studying sound in earnest, he cited a number of childhood experiences that made him conscious of how sound can be heard, and even felt, through different physical mediums, from the ticking of an old self-winding mechanical watch to the thunder from a lightning storm.

“Underwater, we always think about the noises made by whales and dolphins, but they’re not the only marine life forms that use sound,” said McRae, who teased that his remarks on crabs and shrimps would likely “change your perceptions of crustaceans.”

McRae even expects to address the noise generated by ships and jets, although he emphasized that would constitute a relatively brief portion of his remarks, as opposed to entering into any significant debates about their impacts on the marine ecosystem.

Ultimately, McRae hopes attendees will gain a greater understanding of sound, that they might even be able to use in their daily lives, as well as “a better appreciation for the acoustic environment in which we and our undersea neighbors live.”

Since its inception in 2014, the Port Townsend Marine Science Center’s “Future of Oceans” lecture series has explored topics pertaining to ocean research and emerging technologies related to studying and sustaining healthy oceans.

All of the “Future of Oceans” events are free, although donations are welcomed and appreciated.