Category: Noise Pollution

Acoustical Habitats and Aquatic Noise

I’ve just returned last week from the 2016 Aquatic Noise conference (AN2016), a gathering of souls who have taken it upon themselves to examine, poke, prod, regulate, and abuse our common interest in Marine Bioacoustics. This conference happens every few…

How loud is the ocean now?

  A few years back we worked on a modeling exercise to explore the historic noise levels in the ocean prior to the industrialization of the ocean, which began around the turn of the last century when fossil fuel came…

Noise regulated as a pollutant?

Global Seismic Survey Operations

Just last week a paper was published in Frontiers in Ecology and Environment – and explained in Nature’s International Weekly Journal of Science – proposing that noise pollution – and particularly noise pollution from seismic airgun surveys – be qualified…

BOEM’s eggs are hatching chickens

Back in August of 2014 the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) attempted to mitigate public outrage for a hastily made decision on opening up the US Atlantic continental shelf to seismic surveys by publishing an unsubstantiated puff piece on…

Support OCR

It is with deep gratitude (and a bit of surprise) that I look over the time horizon to realize that OCR has “been in business” for almost eight years. Much has been accomplished since our first clean (but stiff) website…

Flavors of noise

Noise impacts come in two flavors: Noise that is too loud, and noise that sounds awful. There is a degree of subjectivity under the “awful” category. For example; the awful din of your neighbor’s barking dog probably doesn’t meet their…

Some big noise going on down below

Advancing technologies in offshore oil and gas extraction are allowing fossil fuel extractors to venture into ever deeper waters, and drill even deeper wells. Extraction and production operations are happening at water depths of up to two miles, and bore-hole…