FLICKR, CHRISTOPHER MICHELHumpback whales dive near the ocean floor to forage for their meals. But low frequency sounds from ships can slow their descents, making it potentially more difficult to feed, according to a study published this week (August 9) in Biology Letters.
Whales have likely been enduring sound pollution at the study site—Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary between Massachusetts’s Cape Cod and Cape Ann—for decades, study coauthor David Wiley of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration told the Associated Press (AP). Now, the results of his team’s study sounds “another warning that we do need to be very concerned about noise in the oceans because we don’t know the impacts,” he told the AP.
The team of U.K. and U.S. scientists used archival tagging to track the behavior and acoustic environment of 10 humpback whales from 2006 to 2009. In addition to finding that the animals descended more slowly when ships passed, the team also showed that the whales performed fewer side rolls—a technique that they ...
