Title: Oceans Are Getting Louder, Posing Potential Threats to Marine Life
Citation:
Robbins, J. (2019). Oceans Are Getting Louder, Posing Potential Threats to Marine Life. [online] Nytimes.com. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/22/science/oceans-whales-noise-offshore-drilling.html [Accessed 28 Jan. 2019].
Link:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/22/science/oceans-whales-noise-offshore-drilling.html
Main Idea Bullet Points:
-Rise in offshore energy exploration is causing large amounts of traffic in ocean blasting sonar and seismic air underwater
-Blast underwater to be picked up by hydrophones to detect where oil/gas will be
-Trump administration: allowing for more offshore drilling
-Death of sea creatures can result from these seismic blasts (affect hearing, brain hemorrhaging)
-Kills zooplankton/microorganisms that are fundamental to food chain in the ocean
-Sound is 10 times more intense underwater
-Undersea life is tuned for sound and this will alter their ability to find food, expect predators, etc.
-Whale reproduction has been reduced due to the equipment being used in their native warm waters (Along North Carolina to Florida coast)
-Sounds cause stress to marine life (adrenaline and stress hormones leads to weight loss and immunosuppression)
-Social behavior of dolphins and other marine life will be negatively affected (echolocation) rips communication systems
-40-80% fewer fish obtained in Norway due to these systems being in use
Presentation:
Source of Article: New York Times
Questions (Who/What/Why/When/How):
-Who/What: major oil corporations using seismic blast technology to locate oil is damaging to marine life
-Why: using this location method helps eliminate time it takes to locate oil supplies
-When: Trump administration recently lifted ban off offshore drilling, allowing for five huge companies to file permits to begin these actions
-How: Large machines use seismic blasts of air to detect pockets of oil
Impact of finding: The impact of this report is that marine life is now at great risk due to the lift of this offshore drilling ban. Large oil corporations benefit from this as they can make a lot of money by finding pockets of oil quickly. It is extremely damaging to marine life and there are no longer precautions in the way to protect them.
Relevance to this course: This course is focused around sustainability and that is important in every ecosystem. The marine life ecosystem relies on echolocation and this strong sonar interference is extremely damaging to their way of life.
Questions raised by story: As the Trump administration continues, will there be any sort of protection acts put on marine life? What is being done to help with the dramatically dropping reproduction rate in whales?