The oceans are getting noisier, and that's bad news for whales, dolphins, and sea turtles who use sound to communicate and navigate, researchers declared at a United Nations wildlife conference.
Rumbling ship engines, seismic surveys by oil and gas companies, and intrusive military sonars are triggering an "acoustic fog and cacophony of sounds" underwater, scaring marine animals and affecting their behavior. "There is now evidence linking loud underwater noises with some major strandings of marine mammals, especially deep diving beaked whales" [Reuters]
, says Mark Simmonds of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society. Researchers have long worried that high-powered sonar pulses confuse whales and dolphins and may cause the animals to beach themselves.
Marine mammals are turning up on the world's beaches with tissue damage similar to that found in divers suffering from decompression sickness. The condition, known as the bends, causes gas bubbles to form in the bloodstream upon ...
