It was a bit over a decade ago that a catastrophic whale stranding event brought the public’s attention to the fact that noise in the ocean could be lethal to marine mammals. The particular stranding was a consequence of mid-frequency…
Category: Noise Pollution
Theory and Practice
This week I find myself at a conference/trade show co-sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Marine Technology Society (MTS) focused on the ocean. This event is bringing together professionals involved in design and fabrication…
Ultrasound Ocean Noises Pose Risk to Marine Life
Noise pollution has now become one of the common themes of human-generated impacts on the ocean. Shipping noise, military sonar, and seismic airgun surveys are increasingly becoming part of the public discussion in marine conservation. These noises are easy for…
International conference on ocean noise pollution
It was once a popular belief that the ocean was “the silent realm.” This was largely due to the fact that humans are poorly adapted to hearing underwater, and marine animals don’t appear to have “ears” that look anything like…
Ocean Noise featured on Public Radio
Long-time colleague and NRDC ocean noise pollution attorney Michael Jasny was featured this weekend on National Public Radio in a brief piece that clearly highlights some of the problems with the increasing noise in the ocean. It is really worth…
Homing pigeons “hear where they are”
It has been long known that homing pigeons and probably many other migratory birds can hear “infrasound” – sounds at frequencies below human ability to discriminate as pitch. Our pitch discrimination ends at around 20Hz, below which we perceive continuous…
2012 OCR Year-end fundraising appeal
Dear OCR Community and Friends, If there is a sentiment that carries us through the autumn it is gratitude. In taking account of, and “putting by” the harvest of our labors we get an opportunity to reflect on how fortunate…
Central Coast Seismic Interview, Thur. Oct 11, 2pm KPFA
I will be discussing the controversial Diablo Canyon seismic survey proposal today on Caroline Casey’s “Visionary Activist Show” at 2pm PST on KPFA. Pacifica shows up on various frequencies in the Bay Area and can be found online at KPFA.org.…
Noise disrupts interdependencies in the web of life
While it is easier to evaluate specific impacts of a stimulus on specific animals, we know that nature is not just a catalog of individual species; rather it is a fabric of interdependent organisms living in interconnected physical habitats. This…
Shipping noise correlated to stress in whales
A recent paper in the Proceedings of the Royal Society correlates shipping noise with stress levels in baleen whales. Heretofore this has been a difficult assumption to prove because we do not have any baseline of whale stress levels prior…