When you think about the noises of the ocean, you probably imagine the relaxing tides at the beach, and for us humans, that’s about right. Some people (including myself) even play those noises while they sleep because it’s relaxing. But theres another side of ocean noises that is starting to become more and more harmful to marine animals. In the past 10 years, the overall “underwater sounds” have increased by 10db. This might not sound important to you, but when a vast majority of marine animals use sound as a means of communication and locating food, this is starting to affect them in a negative way.
The biggest cause of this issue is seismic blasting. Researchers graphing the underwater terrain use this technique. What happens is large research boats go out into the ocean with a string of high powered air canons trailing behind it. These air canons all go off simultaneously to measure the depths of the terrain underwater and graph it out. The noises that these canons make are around the same volume level of a jet at takeoff. 10 or 15 of these going off at the same time can have a serious effect on marine life, specifically whales and dolphins.
These seismic surveys can go on for weeks at a time, which causes whales and dolphins to have to completely change their location where communication is limited. This is a huge problem considering that whales and dolphins do nearly all of their tasks using complex sound systems. The group Oceana is doing lots of work to abolish seismic blasting, and are doing a great job so far.
Learn more about how Oceana is boycotting seismic blasting by visiting:
https://usa.oceana.org/our-campaigns/seismic_airgun_testing/campaign
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Global Issues, Written by Carson Land 