News

Although you might think of the ocean as a quiet and peaceful place, noise pollution has become a serious problem and especially threatens whales who depend on their hearing to find food and other whales.

Caused by sonar blasts from military exercises, oil and gas exploration, and commercial ships, noise pollution has caught the attention of the federal government’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Their new project seeks to map out noise pollution, so that the problem can be visualized.

Project co-director Leila T. Hatch hopes that this will be “a first step” toward identifying the problem and determining how it affects ocean animals.

Michael Jasny, a senior policy analyst at a private New York group, sued the Navy to reduce noise pollution. He applauded the NOAA’s project, saying, “The maps are enabling scientists, regulators and the public to visualize the problem. Once you see the pictures, the serious risk that ocean noise poses to the very fabric of marine life becomes impossible to ignore.”

Read more in the New York Times article.