{"id":2182131,"date":"2024-12-13T06:00:41","date_gmt":"2024-12-13T05:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/?p=2182131"},"modified":"2024-12-07T09:14:53","modified_gmt":"2024-12-07T08:14:53","slug":"its-nonstop-how-noise-pollution-threatens-the-return-of-norways-whales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/its-nonstop-how-noise-pollution-threatens-the-return-of-norways-whales\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It\u2019s nonstop\u2019: how noise pollution threatens the return of Norway\u2019s whales"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the moment that the biologist Dr Heike Vester presses play, the sound of the static of the fjord fills the room. First comes the constant, steady rumbling of a boat engine. Then, every eight seconds, like a foreboding bass drum, comes the explosion of seismic airguns \u2013 extremely loud blasts used in oil and gas exploration that can travel vast distances underwater.<\/p>\n

And finally, dancing above it all \u2013 and at times drowned out by it \u2013 are the soaring vocalisations of whales.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere, we have sperm whales clicking, pilot whales and seismic airguns,\u201d Vester says. During another recording playback, she points out the sound of a tourist boat\u2019s gears shifting as it follows a group of feeding orcas.<\/p>\n

Suddenly, as the engine sound becomes overwhelmingly loud, the whales\u2019 calls become almost inaudibly faint. \u201cIt really affects their feeding,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs soon as there\u2019s boat noise, they can\u2019t feed any more. Whale-watchers should be aware of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Photograph:
Photograph: Marthe M\u00f8lstre\/The Guardian<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

These underwater recordings, playing from Vester\u2019s laptop at her home near Bod\u00f8, in the Norwegian Arctic Circle, are among hundreds she has made over decades in Vestfjorden.<\/p>\n

Every year from April to October, whenever the weather allows, she lies for hours in a little boat with headphones on, listening to what her hydrophone picks up from 20 metres below the surface.<\/p>\n

The fjord, which is passed by the Gulf Stream coming up from Scotland, is visited by orcas, minke, humpback, sperm and long-finned pilot whales. Blue whales have recently made a return.<\/p>\n

But noise pollution now threatens all that, she says. It comes from cruise liners and tourist boats (many of which do not turn off their engines even when whale-watching), cargo ships, oil and gas exploration, and the military \u2013 along with issues posed by commercial fishing nets and pollution \u2013 and is growing in frequency and volume, she says.<\/p>\n

\"Photograph:
Photograph: Heike Vester\/Ocean Sounds<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n