Brian Barton
Ocean noise pollution is a form of environmental pollution caused by human activities that generate unnatural and excessive sound underwater. Sources of ocean noise pollution include marine vessels, seismic surveys, sonar, construction, and underwater operations such as deep-sea mining and oil and gas extraction. This noise can interfere with the natural behaviors and communication of marine life, causing hearing loss, altered feeding and migration patterns, and even death. As most marine species are highly dependent on sound for survival, the impacts of ocean noise pollution are significant and require immediate attention and action to reduce noise emissions and restore natural soundscapes.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Sources of ocean sound pollution | Marine vessels, seismic surveys, sonar, construction, deep-sea mining, oil and gas extraction and processing, military activities, industrial fishing, coastal construction, oil drilling, warfare, sea-bed mining, and sonar-based navigation |
| Impact on marine life | Interference with key life functions, changes in individual and social behaviour, altered metabolisms, hampered population recruitment, hearing loss, death, injury, panic, decompression sickness, skin damage, behavioural changes, increased anti-predatory behaviour, changes in vocal behaviour, disorientation, inability to hunt successfully, inability to reproduce successfully |
| Noise reduction strategies | Slowing down the global shipping fleet, reducing propeller noise from ships, mitigating the sounds of sonar equipment, quieter technologies, developing and implementing policies and regulations |
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What You'll Learn
- Ocean noise is generated by vessels, airguns, and military activities
- Marine life uses sound to navigate, communicate, find food, and avoid danger
- Human-made noise interferes with marine life's natural behaviour
- Noise pollution can cause hearing loss in marine animals
- Ocean noise is not regulated at an international level
Ocean noise is generated by vessels, airguns, and military activities
Ocean noise emissions can be categorised as either constant or impulsive. Constant noise is generated by vessels, while impulsive noise is explosive and generated by airguns and military activities.
Vessels
The primary source of constant ocean noise is shipping traffic. As shipping activity increases due to globalisation and the movement of goods, the overall noise generated by vessels also increases. Vessels emit noise into the ocean due to cavitation generated by the propeller, and the bigger and faster a ship is, the louder it is. Globally, just about 15% of the global fleet accounts for half of the noise emissions caused by shipping.
Airguns
Airguns are used by the petroleum industry to search for fossil fuels in the seabed. They produce sound by introducing air into the water at high pressure, usually directed toward the sea floor. During seismic surveys, every airgun produces a pulse of noise lasting 20 to 30 milliseconds, repeated every 10 seconds, often for 24 hours a day. Airguns have been identified as one of the most detrimental sources of underwater noise, with the potential to cause hearing loss or damage, brain haemorrhaging, and the masking of communication sounds vital for survival.
Military Activities
Military activities, such as weapon tests, detonations of old ammunition, firing during manoeuvres, and material tests, generate impulsive noise. The use of active sonar systems by military vessels during exercises and routine activities has been linked to whale strandings, particularly for beaked whale species. Explosions generate extremely powerful noise in a wide range of frequencies, and in some cases, military activities have resulted in noise levels that are a million times louder than a jackhammer.
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Marine life uses sound to navigate, communicate, find food, and avoid danger
Toothed whales, like belugas and narwhals, emit intense high-frequency clicks and use the echoes reflected by prey to locate and eventually capture it. They also use echoes to avoid obstacles. This is known as echolocation. Baleen whales, such as bowhead and fin whales, as well as pinnipeds, use their hearing to communicate with each other and most likely also for orientation and navigation.
Scientific studies have shown that noise from human activities can affect marine mammals in various ways. Noises from container ships, cruise ships, and icebreakers overlap in frequency with the known or presumed hearing range of many marine mammals, interfering with their ability to communicate, navigate, forage, mate, and defend themselves. The high-intensity noise of oil and gas exploration has the potential to cause hearing loss in marine mammals and may cause changes in stress hormone levels.
Other human activities that generate ocean noise include deep-sea mining, military activities, port construction, fisheries, and fish farms. These activities can interfere with the natural soundscape of the ocean, impacting the ability of marine life to navigate, communicate, and find food.
Preserving the harmony of the ocean's acoustic soundscape is crucial for the well-being of marine life and humans alike. Through careful planning and the implementation of noise reduction measures, such as those being developed by the International Maritime Organization, it is possible to minimize the impact of human activities on the underwater soundscape.
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Human-made noise interferes with marine life's natural behaviour
Human-made noise in the ocean is a pollutant because it interferes with marine life's natural behaviour. Marine animals use sound to navigate, communicate, find food, locate mates, and avoid predators. When human-made noise is introduced into the environment, it can disrupt these vital activities and lead to serious, sometimes fatal, consequences.
One common impact of underwater noise is that it can cause marine mammals to move away from the noise source. This can result in the abandonment of habitats or migratory pathways, which can have significant impacts on the individual fitness and population health of these species. For example, in an experiment conducted in Southern California, blue whales were tagged to observe their response to active sonar. Despite the sound levels being much lower than those of military sonars, the whales ceased feeding, increased their swimming speed, and moved away from the sound source.
Noise pollution can also interfere with the detection of acoustic signals in the marine environment, masking the sounds produced by marine wildlife. This can lead to changes in individual and social behaviour, altered metabolisms, and hampered population recruitment, which can affect the health and service functions of marine ecosystems. For instance, increased ship noise has caused bottlenose dolphins to simplify their vocal calls, potentially reducing the information content of their calls and decreasing effective communication.
In addition to behavioural changes, human-made noise can also cause physiological changes in marine life. Loud noises can result in temporary or permanent hearing loss, which can impair an animal's ability to perform essential life functions such as communication and finding food. In some cases, noise pollution has even been linked to mortality in marine mammals, caused by hemorrhaging around the brain, air cavities, lungs, and other organs, or the formation of nitrogen bubbles in the bloodstream, leading to embolism.
The number of marine watercraft is on the rise, leading to a concomitant increase in underwater noise. Shipping now accounts for the transport of up to 90% of internationally traded goods, producing an ever-present and rising aural "fog" that masks crucial natural sounds. Other sources of human-made noise in the ocean include seismic surveys, construction, sonar devices, and petroleum industry activities such as airguns used in the search for fossil fuels. With human activity in the ocean continuing to intensify, it is crucial to address underwater noise pollution and its impacts on marine life.
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Noise pollution can cause hearing loss in marine animals
Ocean noise emissions can be constant, such as those generated by vessels, or impulsive (explosive), such as those produced by airguns used by the petroleum industry when searching for fossil fuels in the seabed or during military activities. The bigger and faster a ship is, the louder the noise it emits. Globally, just 15% of the global fleet accounts for half of the noise emissions into the ocean caused by shipping.
Noise pollution can interfere with the detection of acoustic signals in the marine environment. This means that the sound we are creating in the ocean is masking the sounds produced by marine wildlife. This can lead to changes in individual and social behaviour, altered metabolisms, hampered population recruitment, and even death. It can also decrease the communication range of marine mammals and cause them to change their vocal behaviour. For example, increased ship noise has caused bottlenose dolphins to simplify their vocal calls, which may reduce the information content of their calls and decrease effective communication.
Noise pollution can also cause hearing loss in marine animals. Loud noises can cause immediate damage, such as hearing loss, and when sound is one of the main tools marine mammals use for survival in the ocean, this can prove fatal. McCauley et al. found that the noise created by an operating air gun severely damaged the ears of the pink snapper (Pagrus auratus), resulting in apparent ablated hair cells of the sensory epithelia. Similarly, André et al. found that low-frequency noise exposure caused permanent and substantial alterations of the sensory hair cells of the statocysts in four cephalopod species.
To reduce noise pollution, policies must be implemented to reduce propeller noise from ships and mitigate the sounds of sonar equipment, seismic air guns, pile driving, and construction. Quieter technologies must also be developed to improve the ocean soundscape and enable the recovery of marine life.
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Ocean noise is not regulated at an international level
Ocean noise is a recognized form of pollution, with noise levels in some areas of the ocean being over a hundred times louder than they would be naturally. Human activities such as shipping, seismic surveys, sonar use, construction, and resource extraction are some of the main sources of underwater noise pollution. As marine wildlife relies heavily on sound for survival, this noise pollution can have detrimental effects on their behaviour, communication, metabolism, and population recruitment.
Despite the growing recognition of ocean noise as a pollutant, there is currently a lack of international regulation to address this issue. While some countries, such as the United States, have implemented national regulations like the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act, there is no global framework in place. Organizations like the International Ocean Noise Coalition (IONC) and the International Maritime Organization (IMO) are working towards establishing guidelines and raising awareness about the impacts of ocean noise on marine life. However, the current lack of international regulation means that ocean noise pollution remains a significant threat to marine ecosystems.
The absence of international regulation in this context can be attributed to several factors. Firstly, ocean noise pollution is a relatively less understood form of pollution compared to chemical or plastic pollution. It has only recently gained recognition as a critical issue, and scientific research in this area is still evolving. This lag in scientific understanding may have contributed to the delay in establishing international regulations.
Additionally, the complex and dynamic nature of ocean ecosystems presents challenges for regulation. Ocean noise travels immense distances and can impact a wide range of species, from tiny shrimp to massive blue whales. Developing regulations that consider the diverse needs and vulnerabilities of different marine species across various geographic locations is a complex task.
Furthermore, the responsibility for addressing ocean noise pollution may be dispersed across multiple sectors and industries, including shipping, resource extraction, military activities, and construction. Coordinating international efforts to regulate noise emissions across these diverse sectors likely involves navigating a web of stakeholders, each with their own interests and priorities.
While international regulations are lacking, some local and regional initiatives are making progress. For example, the Port of Vancouver has implemented the EcoAction Program, which encourages the use of quieting technologies and provides discounts for vessels complying with voluntary environmental guidelines. Additionally, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) is working on revising guidelines for reducing noise emissions from shipping, expected to be issued in 2023. These efforts demonstrate a growing awareness and commitment to addressing ocean noise pollution, even in the absence of comprehensive international regulations.
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Frequently asked questions
Ocean noise pollution is a form of environmental pollution caused by human activities—like commercial shipping, oil exploration, seismic surveys, offshore wind turbine installation, and military sonar—that generate unnatural and excessive sound underwater.
Marine life is affected by ocean noise pollution in many ways. Many animals, including dolphins, whales, and fish, use vocalizations to communicate. When consistent unnatural noise masks these calls, it becomes harder for the animals to hear and find each other, coordinate hunts, and detect and warn others about predators.
Some of the main sources of ocean noise pollution are marine vessels, seismic surveys that involve blasting loud sounds into the ocean to map the sea floor, sonar, construction, and underwater operations such as deep-sea mining, and oil and gas extraction and processing.
To reduce ocean noise pollution, we need policies to reduce propeller noise from ships and mitigate the sounds of sonar equipment, seismic air guns, pile driving, and construction. We also need to develop quieter technologies, making it easier to reduce noise pollution.
