Williams R., Erbe C., Ashe E., and Clark, W.C. 2015. Quiet(er) marine protected areas. Marine Pollution Bulletin 100: 154-161.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X1530028X
Marine animals that use acoustic cues to hunt or find food, navigate, predator avoidance, and social interactions are particularly sensitive to noise pollution (2). Chronic background noise can interfere with these behaviors as well as cause negative physiological responses like stress or hearing loss (2). By preserving their habitat, acoustics included, these populations will have a better quality life.
Marine animals that are sensitive to sound may be particularly affected by the chronic noise caused by ships off the coast of British Columbia (1). Heavy water traffic from Vancouver and Seattle ports cause ‘hot spots’ of noisy areas where sound sensitive marine animals may be affected, and ‘quiet spots’ of refuge (2). To find sites of opportunity where noise is low and population is high, noise maps are compared with population maps while taking into account species specifics (figure 1). The purpose of Williams’ study is to identify and draw attention to the importance of preserving these quiet areas as a part of their habitat, and the beauty of it is that nothing has to change. By simply preserving these areas that aren’t used by ships and slightly modifying existing routes, there will be quiet areas for many marine animals.
Figure 1: “Example results using harbor porpoise data identifying high “risk” areas (high levels of animal density and anthropogenic noise) and high “opportunity” areas (high levels of animal density and low levels of anthropogenic noise). Map (A): Normalized harbor porpoise density (averaged over 4 surveys conducted June–Sept between 2004 and 2007) showing two regions of high density. Map (B): Cumulative, audiogram-weighted sound energy from ship traffic (June–Sept 2008), normalized to 0–1 and plotted only in geographic cells that had harbor porpoise density data. Map (C): the “risk” map, indicating the co-occurrence of cumulative ship noise and porpoises. Map (D): the “opportunity” map, indicating where porpoise density is high and ship noise is low.” (2) (Photo Source: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X1530028X)
Williams et al. compared maps of the population density of 10 species in BC continental shelf waters and areas of high ship traffic. The 10 animals he looked at are: harbor seals, elephant seals, steller sea lions, Dall’s porpoise, harbor porpoise, fin whale, common minke, humpback whale, northern resident killer whales, Pacific white-sided dolphin, and sea otters (1). The Northern resident killer whales, fin whales, and humpback whales are all ‘at-risk’ species that are sensitive to the ship noise (1). Williams map overlay shows opportune areas to protect that are currently unused by ships but have high population densities. By preemptively creating acoustic sanctuaries you can avoid conflict with shipping companies catalyzing the conservation effort.
Word count: 313
Lit cited:
(1) Erbe C., Williams R., Sandilands D., and Ashe E. 2014. Identifying modeled ship noise hotspots for marine mammals of Canada’s pacific region. PLoS ONE. 9(11): e114362. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0114362 http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0089820
(2)Williams R., Erbe C., Ashe E., and Clark, W.C. 2015. Quiet(er) marine protected areas. Marine Pollution Bulletin. 100: 154-161. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X1530028X
Acoustic sanctuaries sound very relaxing. I wouldn’t mind having an acoustic sanctuary
LikeLike
I’m glad you pointed out a concern that isn’t really thought about very often! Beauty birdie as your profile pic! I love your blog……oh yah I love you too!
LikeLike
Thank you for a very accurate and non biased comment on my blog 🙂
LikeLike
This is a great topic. I never realized this was a major issue in sea life, however I hope that we are able to conserve these areas that have little to no noise pollution.
LikeLike
Very interesting! I also wouldn’t mind an acoustic sanctuary myself.
LikeLike
I’m from up north and we get killer whales in our channel. It’s good to be aware of this.
LikeLike
I’ve often wondered about this when taking the ferry across to the island, especially because water transmits sound so much better than air. It is nice though to hear of a situation where we could preemptively establish these reserved areas before conflicts arise. This also reminds me of light pollution, in that it is a sort of non-tangible pollution that we don’t normally think of.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good read! Some animals must go crazy with all that disruptive signaling.
LikeLike
Wow I had no idea that this was happening, thanks for sharing, great blog.
LikeLike
Interesting topic, I was aware of the issue but I didn’t think it was having that much of an impact. Thanks for giving more information 🙂
LikeLike
Awesome blog! 🙂
LikeLike
Great topic! There is a lot of interesting work being done on sound pollution.
LikeLike
Very interesting! hadn’t thought about this idea before. Thanks.
LikeLike
Let’s hope these Acoustic Sanctuaries come into effect! It’s time industry and conservation find a happy medium and take into consideration that these species at risk own just as many rights as we do in the world!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Very cool article. I never heard about this, so thank you for introducting this to me.
LikeLike
Great read! I hope some more research goes into the benefits of preserving quite areas.
LikeLike
Good blog. I’ve never thought of that as an issue before
LikeLike