Tag: underwater noise

By using sound, many marine organisms can communicate underwater and understand information about their environment. However, underwater noise deriving from human activity, produces sounds that interfere with the ability of marine animals to hear the natural sounds in the ocean, concluding on a major and often deadly menace to ocean wildlife.

As part of its efforts to secure a sustainable marine environment for the years to come, the Government of Canada announced a $26.6 million in funding from the Oceans Protection Plan for research to help better understand noise pressures on marine mammals.

The short film, produced by the Port of Vancouver, gives an insight into one of the key sustainability projects that the port has initiated in a bid to protect the endangered Southern Resident Killer Whales that inhabit the waters off British Columbia. 

Underwater noise as a result from increased shipping activity in the Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean is expected to significantly affect marine life, according to a study entitled 'Acoustic Habitat Degradation Due to Shipping in the Indian Ocean Region', issued by Maritime Research Centre Pune.

The nineteenth meeting of the UN Informal Consultative Process on Oceans and the Law of the Sea (ICP 19) takes place from 18 to 22 of June 2018 at the UN Headquarters in New York, under the theme "Anthropogenic underwater noise." The aim of ICP 10 is to protect marine life from ship noise.

When vessels slow down, underwater noise is reduced, and so does the impact on whales, according to a Vessel Slowdown Trial led by the Port of Vancouver's ECHO Program. Whales use sound to locate prey and ship noise can interfere with their ability to do this.

The proposed construction by Alaska Gas Development Corporation of a LNG pipeline and terminal in Cook Inlet, Alaska, could expose nearly half of the population of resident endangered beluga whales to dangerous levels of noise, according to Environmental Investigation Agency.

Under the National Environmental Science Program, the Australian Government has funded a research on the measurement of shipping noise and its potential impact on whales and other marine animals. This would be the first comprehensive nation-wide assessment of shipping noise in Australia.

Marc Garneau, the Canadian Minister of Transport, announced that under the Oceans Protection Plan, the Government of Canada will launch pilot projects for the Enhanced Maritime Situational Awareness initiative and will invest in measures to reduce the underwater noise impacting Southern Resident Killer Whales.

The research team say there are “many questions and uncertainties” around seabed mining, including legal issues and the difficulties of predicting the scale and extent of impacts in advance, and of monitoring and regulating mining activity once it takes place in the deep sea.