http://www.ifaw.org/united-states/our-work/whales/understanding-sources-ocean-noise-pollution
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| Propeller marks in a whale |
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| Air-gun Array |
IMES
Sunday, September 14, 2014
Brent, UR: Noise Pollution In the Ocean
The article I have chosen this time is on noise pollution and the different types there are. the article explains that there are three types of man made noise pollution like ship noise, noise from oil drilling, and military sonar. however a couple of theses are broken down into subcategories. First off is ship noise. Ships are constantly moving with their engines running, however this sound can range between 20-300Hz which is the range many wales use for communication. I'm sure you can imagine that since the ships sound runs at the same hertz as whale communication that that would lead to accidental collisions between whales and ship propellers. That in fact is the leading death in wright whales around the world. Next is Drilling noise and it is broken into two categories: Exploration and Drilling noise. Exploration noise is the use of a system called an air-gun array. This air-gun array sends incredibly loud sound directly into geological structures to detect for oil or natural gas trapped below the surface. Then there is drilling noise, which is exactly as you could imagine it sounding. the sound may not be as loud as the air-gun array however the sound lasts for a longer period of time. with both the air-gun array and the noise from the drilling platform this is enough to drive fish and mammals away from the habitat where they use to breed. Last is military sonar. The article states that back during the the cold war sonars weren't as bad since they focused on deep waters but now the sonar has a shallower and broader range. The noise from this up to date sonar is almost as powerful as the air-gun array. This is known to cause fish and whales to leave there preferred habitat and also causes mass amounts of whales to beach themselves to escape the noise. However with advances in technology and the study of marine noise fisheries are able to deploy underwater noise makers, or pingers, with their nets to warn whales to keep them from tangling in their nets.
http://www.ifaw.org/united-states/our-work/whales/understanding-sources-ocean-noise-pollution
http://www.ifaw.org/united-states/our-work/whales/understanding-sources-ocean-noise-pollution
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Is this something you would be interested in further researching and using for your Research Project?
ReplyDeleteIf you are interested in this topic, then I have a few questions that I'd like answers to. First--what is a hertz and how does that differ from frequency and decibel? Second--I'd certainly want to learn more about the differences between the hertz/decibel levels of the various forms of ocean noise pollution sources and how they compare to the levels at which marine animals voice/hear. Great topic!!
ReplyDeleteJessica D. section 52. Brent, I don't know a whole lot about sound. I was wondering, if I was under water and a gun array went off a few miles away or some submarine somewhere used their sonar, what would I hear? How is my hearing different from dolphins and whales?
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