The Arctic’s bowhead whales can live for over 200 years. Imagine what they might hear in that time: screw propellers were only just being used to power ships 200 years ago, and
The Arctic’s bowhead whales can live for over 200 years. Imagine what they might hear in that time: screw propellers were only just being used to power ships 200 years ago, and diesel engines appeared some hundred years after that.
The underwater radiated noise of shipping has grown globally, but the Arctic is a special place. It has been partially shielded from shipping noise.
Sea ice shields and diffuses underwater sound, so belugas and narwhals, for example, can find shipping noise particularly disturbing – perhaps leaving the area for days. There have been reports of belugas fleeing in response to noise from an icebreaker over 30 kilometers away.
They are used to the sound of whale song and the cracking, popping and groaning of ice.
Some Arctic whales use ice sounds for navigation or they can make sounds that are reflected off the ice for echolocation. “There are subtle differences in the acoustic environments of multi-year ice, young ice and open water, as well as myriad combinations of these conditions,” according to Cornell University professor Christopher W. Clark. “All Arctic whales, even adult bowheads, can get trapped or die in ice, so there is clearly a
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