Noise in the Ocean = Pollution in the Water?
This article was written by Anh Vo.
Deep beneath the ocean’s surface lies a vibrant world of sounds. For marine mammals like whales, dolphins, and porpoises, sound is how they communicate, find food, navigate, and connect with each other. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration explains that “a whale's world is full of sound…; marine mammals use underwater sound as their primary way to communicate and assess their environments.”
But human-made noise is changing that soundscape dramatically. Ship traffic, seismic exploration, drilling, and sonar blasts all create lots of underwater noise that drowns out whale calls. This consists of navigation and disrupts feeding and migration patterns. An article from the Natural History Museum stated that loud sound bursts are scaring cetaceans and “risking the lives of whales and dolphins.” In the Arctic regions, industrial underwater noises significantly mess with the behavior of species like belugas and narwhals, causing hearing stress, mating calf communication breakdowns, and habitat avoidance.
Scientific studies also confirmed that the acoustic detectability of humpback, minke, and sperm whales decreases as ambient noises increase. In other words, whales become harder to find, harder to communicate, and more vulnerable when the noise levels are higher.
What does this mean for our oceans and for humans? It means that our actions above water (shipping, drilling, and even offshore construction) ripple through the dep sea with very real consequences. It means that conservation isn’t just about “no plastic” or “protecting coral reefs. Its also about proteting the sound environment of our oceans, marine life. This topic opens many doors: designing “quiet ocean” intitves, studying the soundcape around the school, raising awareness of less visible pollution, and supporting new policies that regulate underwater activity and man-made noises.
The oceans are living with more noise than ever before, and for the creatures whose world is built around the important existence of sound, its not just a nuisance. Its a threat to their survival. Recognizing the impacts of sound is a step toward protecting more than what we see in the waves. We must protect what we hear beneath them too.
https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/whales-world-sound
https://www.arcticwwf.org/threats/underwater-noise/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X22008049