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But the blast of a seismic air gun used to map the sea floor for oil and gas can be as loud as a rocket launch or an underwater dynamite explosion ship engines and oil drilling can reach the roar of a rock concert (see ‘A sea of sound’). Sound travels differently through air from through water, making it hard to compare the two environments. That translates to a doubling of noise intensity every 10 years (decibels are calculated on a logarithmic scale). There is no global map of ocean noise, but researchers agree that ship traffic approximately doubled between 19, boosting sound contributions by about 3 decibels per decade. Humanity has greatly added to the ocean soundscape. A humpback whale can be as loud as an outboard motor, Seger says. In reality, the ocean is a noisy place: waves, marine life and rainfall create their own din. When French oceanographer Jacques Cousteau made a documentary about the ocean in 1956, he called it The Silent World - a misnomer that researchers today point to with much mirth. “The negative effect is greater than the sum of the parts.” Far-from-silent worldĭecades ago, not much was known about ocean noise.
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“Two stressors together are more than just A plus B,” says Lindy Weilgart, a biologist at Canada’s Dalhousie University in Halifax. But researchers worry that background noise will be the straw that breaks endangered species’ backs. In the grand scheme of ocean ecosystem threats, climate change might be a bigger issue - along with acidification and pollution.
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Efforts range from natural experiments on the effects of a plan to re-route shipping lanes in the Baltic Sea, to investigating the impact of a trial scheme in Canada to reduce ship speeds in coastal waters off Vancouver. So researchers are becoming acoustic prospectors, searching for quiet zones and noisy habitats in efforts to chronicle what exactly happens when sound levels change. It isn’t clear whether marine systems can work around or adapt to it - or whether it will drive crashes in already-stressed populations. Because noise is so pervasive, it is hard to study the impact as it ramps up. Shipping organizations are concerned, too: in 2014, the International Maritime Organization issued guidelines on reducing noise from vessels.īut there’s still a gap in the science. The European Union has adopted legislation to achieve healthy marine systems by 2020, including a provision to ensure that underwater noise does not “adversely affect” marine life.
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Last November, the United Nations agreed on resolutions to conserve ocean health that noted an “urgent need” for research and cooperation to address the effects of anthropogenic underwater noise. “There is a political will to regulate underwater noise,” says Jakob Tougaard, a bioscientist at Aarhus University in Denmark. Short, loud blasts of sound can cause physical damage persistent background noise, such as that from shipping, can alter a host of systems and behaviours, from communication to feeding.
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International concern is ramping up fast as evidence grows about problems arising from the din created by military sonar, seismic surveys, oil drilling, dredging and ship engines. Although Seger hopes that local protests will prevent the port development, she also sees Colombia’s Pacific coast as a rare experimental site that could help to answer a pressing question for marine science: how badly is humanity’s growing acoustic footprint damaging ocean life? The transition from quiet coast to bustling shipping route could disrupt humpbacks ( Megaptera novaeangliae) and other local populations. Plans are afoot to build a major international port in the gulf to improve transport routes to Asia. “It’s your perfect, wanting-to-fall-asleep cacophony of animal sounds,” says Kerri Seger, a researcher with the marine-technology firm Applied Ocean Sciences in Santa Monica, California, who is studying the region’s marine acoustics. Its underwater world is filled with the whistles and clicks of endangered humpback whales, the grunting of fishes and the snapping of shrimp.
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This coast is peaceful in a way that most people don’t stop to think about: its seas are largely unmarred by human noise. Fishing in the tiny coastal towns around the gulf is small-scale many locals use dugout canoes. But right now, only the occasional ship plies these waters. In Colombia’s Gulf of Tribugá, a deep channel runs from the Pacific Ocean into shore.