Ocean Noise

The ocean can be a noisy place!

There are many natural sounds in the ocean that are loud enough to carry for miles. There are also many sounds that humans are introducing to the environment. As with any crowded room, the sounds made in an environment overlap, blend, and drown each other out making it difficult to hear any one thing. The animals within an environment have naturally adapted so that they can hear and be heard. Some are louder, some stay close, some speak so that others can’t hear. All have adapted to use particular and specific frequency bands.

Remember that animals use sounds to navigate, hunt, and communicate? Humans use sound in the water for many of the same reasons. We use it to map the surface of the sea floor and to find out what is in the ground beneath. We use sound to navigate and communicate with ships and submarines as well as many unmanned vehicles. We also use sound to "see" through the water, to count fish and find submarines. Sounds can also just be a byproduct of construction, transportation, mining, and underwater processing machinery.

The huge rise of all these newer man-made sounds could have the effect of “masking” biologically important sounds – like turning on a coffee maker in the middle of a room or building a freeway in your back yard.