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As if humans were not already doing enough to destroy the planet and harm our fellow creatures, a new study has revealed that human-caused noise is hindering the ability of dolphins to communicate with one another.
Dolphins – highly intelligent and social animals – a complex arrays of whistle.
But in a study published this week in the journal Biology Letters, researchers found that bottlenose dolphins in an area off the coast of Maryland were less complicated when it was created.
A mother Atlantic bottlenose dolphin and her offspring in Curacao. (Wild Horizon via Getty Images)
"Helen Bailey of the University of the Maryland Center for Environmental Science said," It's kind of like trying to answer a question in a nutshell. "Dolphins simplified their calls to the masking effects of vessel noise."
Bailey's assistant, Leila Fouda, added, "The simplification of these whistles can reduce the information in these acoustic signals and make it more difficult for dolphins to communicate."
The researchers, who gathered data by putting microphones on the ocean floor, noted that while it was possible for ambient noise to occur naturally, the noise they recorded underwater was "mainly" caused by ships.
Their findings echo another study also published this week. Japanese scientists found that humpback whales around the country's Ogasawara Islands are reducing their famous whales in response to noise caused by passing ships. And, as the site Inverse notes, a 2016 study on orcas also found that sound of ships hindered their communication abilities.
Bailey said in the statement on the dolphin
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