Humpback whales are silent and the reason will make you cry

Male hump
Whales are known for their evocative songs, but their classical melodies are shortened or silenced in response to ship noise, Japanese researchers have discovered.

Whales like humpback whales use songs to communicate, search for food, find partners and navigate the seas, but in Japan their voices are drowning under the din of cacophonous human activity.

New
study, published Wednesday in the journal PLOS ONE, adds more evidence that noise pollution generated by humans interferes with marine life. Our
The oceans are becoming increasingly noisy as a result of increased human activity, including shipping, military sonar, underwater construction, and seismic explosions for oil and gas. Scientists have already discovered that these hearing attacks can threaten the health and life of various marine creatures.

In this new study, researchers from the Japan Whale Watching Association of Ogasawara and the Japanese University of Hokkaido used underwater recorders to examine the 39, impact of the sound of a single ship on humpback whales around the Ogasawara Islands. From February to May 2017, they recorded the singing of one to three whales a day and 26 singers in total.

"This study presents a truly special and unique situation,"
Rosalind Rolland, whale expert and veterinarian at the Anderson Cabot Center for Marine Life at the New England Aquarium, who did not participate in the research, explained to NOVA. "It is very difficult to find anywhere in the ocean where there is only one source of sea noise. Most of the time, there is noise from all directions. "

After listening to the recordings, the researchers determined that fewer humpback whales were singing within 500 meters of the shipping lane than elsewhere when a ship was passing through the remote area. Whales within 1200 meters tended to temporarily reduce singing or to stop after the passage of the vessel. Most of these whales who stopped singing only resumed singing at least 30 minutes after the ship passed.

"Humpback whales seemed to stop singing temporarily rather than altering the sound characteristics of their song under the noise, generated by a freighter cargo," the authors wrote. "Stopping vocalisation and moving away could be an economical adaptation to the source of fast moving noise."

Spencer Fire, an assistant professor in Florida Tech's Department of Ocean Engineering and Marine Science, said
CNN's new study was "solid" and highlights how the noise that humans produce can have a negative impact on these gentle giants.

For example, "if [whales] wait to be able to communicate, they may not be able to reproduce and this has consequences for reproduction, "Fire explained.

The noise could also cause whales to leave their habitat and force them to relocate to areas "where they could hunt for food that is moving too fast or whose nutritional content is not high enough," Fire said. . "And generally, energy intake is what makes or breaks the survival of animals."