Topic: Shhh ... To make ocean conservation work we should keep the noise down
Summary
According to a new study from Marine Pollution Bulletin, quiet areas are sectioned off in the oceans to give us a better understanding of how human generated noises affect marine animals. Most of these marine organisms such as the dolphins, whales, fish, and invertebrates all have the ability to detect and monitor sensory sounds. Human activities like shipping and other forms of transportation contribute a lot of noise.. They say that aquatic mammals like the ones above mentioned are prone to disturbance and altering their ways to find food, avoid predators, and to travel accordingly.
The amount of noise production by shipping has increased significantly as statistics show. From 1992 till now, numbers were 4x higher. Today, as we have advanced technology, the creation of huge and improved ships are releasing lots of sound waves. By studying patterns of noises in marine life, researchers are more likely to come up with new information. In addition, looking at variations of human activity in shipping will help determine where we are most active and very noisy.
Reflection
I'm so interested in this because who knows how sound is heard from marine animals point of view than us. Would it hurt or would it sound the same as we do? I'm so far certain that some species can listen well better than others including us. I predict that noise made from humans could affect the health of underwater life since some are more adapted to less productive areas. One thing I'm concerned about is what if a group of dolphins are an actual family and they use sound to keep in track of each other in terms of where they are and noises made by us could interrupt that communication and one member in that group of dolphins can be potentially lost and may never make it back. At this moment, strategies to reduce the levels of noises is possible through building ships that run quietly, replacing the nosiest ships, create speed limits, etc. Overall, this is really cool and I'm hoping to see more from this.
According to a new study from Marine Pollution Bulletin, quiet areas are sectioned off in the oceans to give us a better understanding of how human generated noises affect marine animals. Most of these marine organisms such as the dolphins, whales, fish, and invertebrates all have the ability to detect and monitor sensory sounds. Human activities like shipping and other forms of transportation contribute a lot of noise.. They say that aquatic mammals like the ones above mentioned are prone to disturbance and altering their ways to find food, avoid predators, and to travel accordingly.
The amount of noise production by shipping has increased significantly as statistics show. From 1992 till now, numbers were 4x higher. Today, as we have advanced technology, the creation of huge and improved ships are releasing lots of sound waves. By studying patterns of noises in marine life, researchers are more likely to come up with new information. In addition, looking at variations of human activity in shipping will help determine where we are most active and very noisy.
Reflection
I'm so interested in this because who knows how sound is heard from marine animals point of view than us. Would it hurt or would it sound the same as we do? I'm so far certain that some species can listen well better than others including us. I predict that noise made from humans could affect the health of underwater life since some are more adapted to less productive areas. One thing I'm concerned about is what if a group of dolphins are an actual family and they use sound to keep in track of each other in terms of where they are and noises made by us could interrupt that communication and one member in that group of dolphins can be potentially lost and may never make it back. At this moment, strategies to reduce the levels of noises is possible through building ships that run quietly, replacing the nosiest ships, create speed limits, etc. Overall, this is really cool and I'm hoping to see more from this.