Photo credit: Magda Ehlers
by Arline L. Bronzaft, Ph.D., Board of Directors, GrowNYC, Co-founder, The Quiet Coalition, and Honorary Chair, Quiet American Skies
As readers of The Quiet Coalition blog know, human-made noise can adversely affect the well-being of many species that live in our seas. There are wonderful natural sounds in our seas but, unfortunately, human-made sounds, especially from the shipping industry are altering the acoustics of the seas and harming the species that call these bodies of water home.
EuroNews podcast “Ocean Calls” dives into issues from illegal fishing to deep-sea mining. At the start of the month, Ocean Calls published an episode titled “How should the sea sound.” The podcast introduces its listeners to the sounds of fish, shrimp, and reefs — it was these sounds that attracted me. It was so good to listen to the sounds of the natural inhabitants of our oceans rather than the offensive sounds of loud boats.
“Noise emissions have doubled in European waters within a span of just five years from 2014-2019,” the podcast overview reads. These noise emissions affect the ability of the seas’ living inhabitants to feed, mate and navigate the waters. Not being able to engage in these activities can lead to stress and eventually be lethal.
When we discuss the adverse impacts of noise on people, we also discuss how we can limit these harmful sounds. This podcast notes there are ways we can limit the impact of harmful sounds on sea life. We learn that we can reduce the speed of ships and this would have a lesser impact. This raises a question similar to the one that individuals combating noise pollution always raise: “Will we actually employ tools to lessen the impacts of noise on the wonderful species of our waterways?”
