You know that moment when you’re rolling around on the ground to your favourite Macy Gray song or going Xtreme on your Sunday beach run and then your phone gives you a warning “turn the sound level down to avoid hearing damage”..and if you want take care of your ears you head this message, or, if you’re like me, you quickly close the notification and keep going. If our cities and oceans had this same notification, it would be constantly triggered by the cacophony of sound present, displaying as a hologram warning for all of us to see and not so easily turn off.
All of our senses have thresholds, and the same applies for the planet and all the rest of its inhabitants. When we think about pollution, our mind strays to chemicals, plastics, greenhouse gases - that which contaminates and contributes to climate change. However, pollution paints a broader darker stroke, from light pollution to noise pollution, the latter of which cannot be seen, only heard. Noise pollution is considered to be any unwanted or disturbing sound that affects the health and well-being of humans and other organisms (National Geographic). Unlike other forms of pollution like plastics, noise pollution, luckily, does not persist in the environment.
According to NOAA, “Not all sound is created equal. Sources of ocean noise vary in many ways, including how loud they are (intensity, measured in decibels), how long they last (fractions of a second to never ending), and their pitch or tone (frequency, measured in hertz).” Noise on land, from subways and construction in cities to rock concerts (not that we’ve had this type of exposure lately..on the bright side, our ears are benefitting), leads to stress, high blood pressure, and Noise Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL). Below the sea, sound pollution is having an even greater impact on marine inhabitants. Water is the preferred medium for sound, as sound travels significantly farther in H20 over air. In one experiment from the early 1990s, researchers placed a speaker near Antarctica, played some low-frequency or deep-pitched sounds, and picked up those sounds near Bermuda—demonstrating that sound can literally travel halfway around the world (NOAA).
The ocean has always been an aqueous symphony, a melodic mix of storms, earthquakes, and animals. Like many other issues I’ve discussed, this all changed with the advent of the industrial revolutions, with anthropogenic activities disrupting and overpowering this natural symphony, including ships, military sonar, seabed mining, construction, and oil drilling. This has had a particularly adverse effect on cetaceans, who rely on echolocation to communicate, navigate, feed, and find mates - which noise pollution intervenes with. Noise pollution can also cause behavioural change in cetaceans and has led to mass strandings of whales and dolphins on beaches.
Strandings have increased since humans began taking record, according to the Guardian, “Unusual mass strandings, where multiple species of whale and dolphin beach at several locations at once, have soared since the introduction of military sonar in the 1950s and can be fatal.” One of the loudest and most significant sources of submerged noise comes from naval sonar devices. As stated in National Geographic, “Sonar, like echolocation, works by sending pulses of sound down into the depths of the ocean to bounce off an object and return an echo to the ship, which indicates a location for the object. Sonar sounds can be as loud as 235 decibels and travel hundreds of miles underwater, interfering with whales’ ability to use echolocation. Research has shown that sonar can cause mass strandings of whales on beaches”
I remember when I was working for Greenpeace New Zealand, and in February 2017, 300 pilot whales washed up and died overnight in Cape Farewell, the name of this place suiting this incomprehensibly sad happening. New Zealand also has some of the highest whale stranding rates in the world. I remember working that day in a somber haze, amidst learning more about noise pollution and other threats causing these tragic events. Not long after this incident, after months of lobbying and protesting, the New Zealand federal government instituted a moratorium on deep sea oil drilling in 2018
What can we do about this dire situation? Sonar and shipping are forecasted to continue increasing, but the oceans already cannot sustain the barrage of noise pollution occurring. Like coming home after a long day and kicking it in the calm, marine animals also require respite from anthropogenic clamorous chaos. Unlike climate change and plastic pollution which are difficult to reverse, we can quickly turn around the noise pollution levels in the oceans. According to Carlos M. Duarte, a biological oceanographer and marine ecologist, policy makers seeking to triage the earth’s injuries from human activity should treat marine noise first. “Ocean noise has always been in the hospital waiting room,” he says. “We need to get noise out of the waiting room.” (Scientific American)
Solutions are coming into place, and there’s actions we can take to contribute to ending noise pollution, chronicled below →
Earthjustice and the Natural Resources Defense Council have won lawsuits against the Navy for its damaging use of sonar and other practices in 2015. Following this, the Navy agreed to limit its use of sonar and other harmful training activities in critical habitats for whales, dolphins, and other marine mammals. The settlement, finalized by a federal judge in Honolulu, reconciles a decade-old debate about the Navy’s sonar practices. The agreement includes limits or bans on mid-frequency active sonar and explosives in specified areas, including Hawaii and Southern California (Huffington Post). Canadian ENGO’s have also gained legal standing in the US to legally oppose Navy sonar practices, as efforts to address noise pollution in Canada is not enough, marine mammals in Canada are inevitably impacted by sources of noise pollution taking place south of the border. From the research I’m doing, it sounds like we need more stronger policies across ocean nations to regulate the use of sonar. I’ve been researching ENGO’s in Canada and the United States working on this issue, and I would love to learn where this effort is at from Canadian groups who have worked on this (and thanks to these groups who have campaigned against the Navy over the noise pollution caused by their sonar): Georgia Strait Alliance, Wilderness Committee, Raincoast Conservation, and David Suzuki Foundation.
According to NOAA, measures can be taken to make shipping itself quieter, through the application of quieting designs - including propellers that produce less sound, and are actually more fuel efficient. This requires regulatory support from the government. With this, to help quiet the oceans and curb greenhouse gas emissions, the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) suggests enforcing speed limits on ships. NOAA is working on this front with partners, including those within the shipping industry, to incentivize building new and retrofitting existing ships to be quieter.
We need to prohibit all mining, oil and gas activities in the marine environment, which includes implementing moratoriums on deep sea oil drilling across the globe, like New Zealand has done, which is MASSIVE for decarbonizing our economy and moving away from the dangerous and destructive extraction of fossil fuels in the oceans. In efforts to curb climate change, President Biden has also put a halt on all new offshore drilling projects. The public plays an incredibly important role in making these victories happen, as stated in The Narwhal in 2019, “After two years of advocacy and 70,000 letters sent, conservation organizations across Canada are celebrating the federal government’s decision to prohibit all oil and gas activities in marine protected areas.” Currently, Canada has protected 10% of coastal and marine areas, and has committed to increase this to 30% by 2030. As I’ve said numerous times, we need to make our voices heard and write to our Member of Parliament to let them know we need to end all mining, oil and gas activities in the marine environment within Canada’s jurisdiction.
According to Scientific American, marine noise could also be mitigated by strategically managing traffic on the water, the researchers point out. One nearby example is a voluntary program developed by the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority. It asks ships and tugboats to reroute away from the feeding areas of endangered southern resident killer whales and recommends slower speeds for large ships in specific waters in southwestern British Columbia to reduce underwater noise. They are creating incentives for shipping companies to figure out how much noise they make compared to other ships and reward those with good environmental status.
And once again - buy less - resist capitalism. Air freight prices continue to rise, so this means that many businesses - especially multinationals and businesses depending on goods made overseas, are increasingly relying on freight shipping, leading to more traffic in the oceans and greater noise pollution. We need to go back to just buying what we need, and buying what’s made and sold locally.
To learn more, an incredible documentary, which I need to rewatch is Sonic Sea, which has won countless awards from around the world, and is narrated by Rachel McAdams. According to Sonic Sea, “We can make a difference, compelling industry and the government to chart a more responsible course to protect countless marine animals — if we rise up together now and demand change.” Visit my linktr.ee to sign their petition, sign up for updates on how to address this issue and access this film!!