2024 Progress Report

What do you imagine the whales thought when they first heard the sounds of engine-driven vessels driving through their vast ocean habitat? Do you think the fishes were bothered by the humming and thrashing of motor-driven propellers as humans began mechanizing the sea? And as piers and ports were being built, how did benthic invertebrates respond to incessant piles being pounded into their muddy homes?

While we can’t answer these questions, we can speculate – informed by the research that has transpired once we started thinking about it. But thinking about it has taken a while…

Like many of us who were children in the 1960s, I was introduced to the fabulous visuality of the sea by way of Jacques Cousteau’s presentation “Le Monde du Silence” – a thrilling “feast for the eyes” movie that set the field of marine bioacoustics back 20 years – because contrary to Cousteau’s assertion – second only to being wet, the ocean is acoustic. And far from being silent, a lot of the ocean is actually a raucous bioacoustic cacophony!

Ken Norris was conducting research on dolphin bio-sonar as Cousteau’s (and Louis Malle’s) movie was being released, but it wasn’t until over 20 years later, when Roger Payne introduced us to “The Songs of the Humpback Whale,” that the acoustical dimension of the ocean was revealed to the public.

The humpback’s enchanting songs woke us up to the fact that marine animals could be sonically complex and beautiful. The album became the first Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified “Gold Album” released by animals. Tapped by the likes of Judy Collins, Graham Nash, and the Paul Winter Consort, the whale songs were heard even in bank lobbies and elevators of the time.

It also woke up physical oceanographers and marine biologists to the idea that water – being incompressible, serves as a fantastic acoustical communication channel. Because unlike our “above the waterline” habitat, where we can see millions of miles, but often can’t decipher natural sounds for more than a hundred or so feet, the ocean is just the opposite – where natural sounds can be heard for thousands of miles, but where light travels only a few hundred feet (at best).

This has resulted in the acoustical habitat of the ocean being every bit as complex as our terrestrial visual habitat – perhaps even more so, because animals have been evolving and adapting to sound perception in the ocean far longer than we’ve been adapting our sensory perceptions above the waterline.

So we’re just learning about the varied and amazing ways that marine life has adapted to, and uses ocean acoustics; with whistling barnacles, purring mantis shrimp, chorusing fishes, the “acoustical daylight” of pistol shrimp, the sonic imprinting of gamete-dispersal larvae (bonding them to the soundscapes of their mother reef), and the complex “Morse Code” of benthic invertebrates… The deeper we look, the more we discover!

Unfortunately one of the things we are also discovering is that noises made by the militarization and industrialization of the ocean are interfering with these complex and nuanced natural sounds – with predictable, and often unpredictable consequences. And while OCR has had a hand in developing noise regulations, we’re in the regulatory pool with noisy industrial and military stakeholders; so frankly – due to their thwarting efforts, the regulations are 20 years behind the science…

So what are we doing about it? Our work more-or-less breaks down into two trajectories: Knowing that people will protect what they love, OCR Communications Director Daniela Huson is producing beautiful media; reaching out into the world, and enticing our global family to fall in love with the sea.

And then my work of pawing around in the boxes of craggy bits, trying to make sense of where biology, physics, policy, industry, and commerce all jangle up against each other.

Between Daniela’s gorgeous feeds, our policy romps in DC, my reviewing and critiquing agency and industrial proposals, participation in International Standards Organizations and scientific conferences, publishing in peer-reviewed journals, and making public presentations, we have been reasonably successful in advancing the arcane discussion about the impacts of anthropogenic noise on marine habitats.

And none of this would be possible without the support of our ocean-loving community!

Thanks for making our progress possible!

PS: After a wicked presidential campaign season, we know we will have our work cut out for us. Your donation today will allow us to inhale again, and carry on!