Ocean Noise: Turn it down - Ocean Conservation Research

The North Sea teems with fish, sea birds and marine mammals.
In particular, it is home to large numbers of seals and cetaceans,
the most numerous of which is the harbour porpoise. It also
provides an important habitat for white-beaked and bottlenose
dolphins, common and grey seals and minke whales. However,
it is also subject to intense human pressures, particularly from
fisheries and pollution.
The North Sea is surrounded by highly industrialised nations
and has some of the world’s busiest ports and shipping routes,
as well as numerous off-shore oil and gas fields. Man-made
noise is just one of many forms of pollution adding stress to an
ecosystem already drastically altered by over-fishing and other
human pressures.
Animals may remain
near noise sources
but this does not
mean that they are
not affected by them:
they might remain to
feed or mate even to
the point of damaging
their hearing.
Man-made ocean noise: the invisible pollution Page 15