Many marine species heavily rely on natural sounds to find their way around, communicate, find food and even reproduce.
For instance, Bowhead whales sing for prolonged periods during the winter period to woo potential mates. Pistol shrimps create powerful air sound columns by snapping their huge claws to stun and capture their prey (Versluis, 2000). Narwhals depend on vocalisations to echolocate themselves or reunite with other group members who are located further away (ScienceDaily, 2006).
However, over the past century, the ocean has experienced increasingly alarming levels of anthropogenic activity, affecting marine acoustic environments detrimentally in the form of anthropogenic noise pollution (Kunc et al., 2016). These sources of underwater noise mainly stem from industrial, military, and commercial sources such as seismic activity from oil and gas exploration, shipping, and naval sonar operations.
Now, why is this such a cause for concern? Most of our marine life are highly sensitive to sound (Weilgart, 2008). To make things worse, sound travels a lot more efficiently underwater, travelling about 4.5 times faster and 60 times further underwater as compared to air (World Wide Fund For Nature, 2022).
This translates into a large scale of impact that could be thousands of square kilometres and beyond (Weilgart, 2008). This could induce increased levels of stress, hearing damage , evacuation from primary habitats, and disruption to natural and physiological behaviours (Kunc et al., 2016, Weilgart, 2008).
Imagine living in a world enveloped in extended and overpowering levels of noise that impedes your communication with others, poses a potential lethal danger to your health and well-being, and forces you to permanently leave your familiar, everyday living spaces…sounds pretty unimaginable, right?
Despite the hazardous nature of anthropogenic noise pollution on marine life, only 5% of oceans across the globe are marine protected areas. It’s time that we step up and take action against this invisible form of pollution threatening the survival of our marine life.
In this mini series of Diving beneath the waves, I will be identifying and exploring in greater detail some of the anthropogenic sources of underwater noise pollution, its impacts on various marine life and strategies to better address this prevalent issue.
Until then, stay safe and stay woke! 🤔
References:
Kunc, H. P., McLaughlin, K. E., & Schmidt, R. (2016). Aquatic noise pollution: implications for individuals, populations, and ecosystems. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 283(1836), 20160839.
Natural Resources Defense Council & International and Fund for Animal Welfare. (2015). Learn About Ocean Noise | Sonic Sea. Retrieved 15 February 2022, from https://www.sonicsea.org/learn
Natural Resources Defense Council & International Fund for Animal Welfare. (2015). Sonic Sea – Impacts of Noise on Marine Mammals. Retrieved 15 February 2022, from https://sonicsea.org/sites/default/files/IFAW_OceanNoiseReport_WEB_spreads.pdf
Versluis, M., Schmitz, B., Von der Heydt, A., & Lohse, D. (2000). How snapping shrimp snap: through cavitating bubbles. Science, 289(5487), 2114-2117.
Weilgart, L. S. (2008). The impact of ocean noise pollution on marine biodiversity. International Ocean Noise Coalition.
World Wide Fund For Nature. (2022). Infographic: Underwater noise. Retrieved 15 February 2022, from https://arcticwwf.org/newsroom/the-circle/underwater-noise/infographic/