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Review of noise impacts on marine mammals yields new policy recommendations
https://news.ucsc.edu/2019/03/marine-mammal-hearing.htmlReview of noise impacts on marine mammals yields new policy recommendations
After a comprehensive review of current knowledge, a panel of scientists has published new recommendations regarding marine mammal noise exposure
March 12, 2019
By Tim Stephens
Marine mammals are particularly sensitive to noise pollution because they rely on sound for so many essential functions, including communication, navigation, finding food, and avoiding predators. An expert panel has now published a comprehensive assessment of the available science on how noise exposure affects hearing in marine mammals, providing scientific recommendations for noise exposure criteria that could have far-reaching regulatory implications.
Published March 12 in Aquatic Mammals, the paper is a major revision of the first such assessment, published in 2007 in the same journal. Both efforts were led by Brandon Southall, a research associate at the Institute of Marine Sciences at UC Santa Cruz and senior scientist at Southall Environmental Associates.
"One of the things we did in 2007 was to identify major gaps in our knowledge, and we now have considerably more data. We thought there was enough new science to reconvene the panel and revisit these issues," said Southall, who served as director of NOAA's Ocean Acoustics Program from 2004 to 2009.
Concern about the potential for ocean noise to cause hearing damage or behavioral changes in marine mammals began to mount in the 1990s, focusing initially on activities related to the oil and gas industry. In the early 2000s, the association of sonar with mass strandings of deep-diving whales became another focus of concern. Shipping and construction activities are other important sources of ocean noise pollution.
…
https://dx.doi.org/10.1578/AM.45.2.2019.125After a comprehensive review of current knowledge, a panel of scientists has published new recommendations regarding marine mammal noise exposure
March 12, 2019
By Tim Stephens
Marine mammals are particularly sensitive to noise pollution because they rely on sound for so many essential functions, including communication, navigation, finding food, and avoiding predators. An expert panel has now published a comprehensive assessment of the available science on how noise exposure affects hearing in marine mammals, providing scientific recommendations for noise exposure criteria that could have far-reaching regulatory implications.
Published March 12 in Aquatic Mammals, the paper is a major revision of the first such assessment, published in 2007 in the same journal. Both efforts were led by Brandon Southall, a research associate at the Institute of Marine Sciences at UC Santa Cruz and senior scientist at Southall Environmental Associates.
"One of the things we did in 2007 was to identify major gaps in our knowledge, and we now have considerably more data. We thought there was enough new science to reconvene the panel and revisit these issues," said Southall, who served as director of NOAA's Ocean Acoustics Program from 2004 to 2009.
Concern about the potential for ocean noise to cause hearing damage or behavioral changes in marine mammals began to mount in the 1990s, focusing initially on activities related to the oil and gas industry. In the early 2000s, the association of sonar with mass strandings of deep-diving whales became another focus of concern. Shipping and construction activities are other important sources of ocean noise pollution.
…
