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What Happens When Whales Can't Hear Their Families? · How To Protect The Ocean

• 0:00
  Imagine trying to have a conversation with your family
• 0:02
  while standing beside a jet engine.
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  Now imagine that noise never stops.
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  That's the reality for some pilot whales living in one of the busiest
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  shipping corridors in the world.
• 0:13
  This is the How to Protect the Ocean podcast, your weekday ocean news update.
• 0:17
  If you care about staying informed of the ocean every weekday, Monday to
• 0:21
  Friday, hit that follow button right now on the podcast app that you're
• 0:25
  listening to this episode right now.
• 0:28
  Listen, a new study highlighted by Mongabay found that pilot whales
• 0:33
  in the Strait of Gibraltar may be struggling to hear each other because
• 0:36
  of noise from commercial ships.
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  That's how busy it is in that corridor.
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  And you can't really blame them.
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  It's a huge corridor going into the Mediterranean, coming
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  out of the Mediterranean.
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  So I can't really blame it for being that loud when there's so much going on within.
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  So many countries are involved in the Mediterranean.
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  They line the Mediterranean.
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  And so it makes it really difficult to navigate that traffic.
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  And while that might sound like a niche whale story, it's actually
• 1:00
  about something much bigger.
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  And today we're gonna answer a simple question: What happens
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  when the ocean gets so loud that whales can't communicate?
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  Now, let's just talk about whales for a second and in the way that they
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  communicate, because it's not well known to people who are not scientists and
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  people who are not interested in whales, but whales communicate by sound, and each
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  whale species has their own dialect.
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  And even within whale species, the pods tend to have their own dialect
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  for many species, like orcas and stuff.
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  I don't know if it's for every species, but they tend to
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  develop their own language.
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  And so that's a way for them to be able to communicate across, like, tens
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  if not hundreds of kilometers away.
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  These pods are huge, like sometimes greater than 50, sometimes even 100.
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  And so they can't all just be scrunched up in the middle of the pod.
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  A lot of times they're spread out and they have to communicate over a distance.
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  And when they can't communicate or there's other noise that gets in the way,
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  that interrupts their communication, and they just don't know what's going on.
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  So imagine like you have a son or daughter, you have a kid.
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  And they're in the-- maybe five or six, and you're in a busy place.
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  If you are in a busy place and your son or daughter or kid goes a little
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  further away, and say they're like maybe five feet away, and you yell
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  out, they might be able to hear you.
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  They're probably gonna be able to hear if you yell out long, loud enough.
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  But if the noise gets louder and louder or you're at a concert, it's
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  really difficult for you to hear.
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  Imagine being like a kilometer away.
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  Obviously you don't wanna be that far away from your kid in a busy area, but then
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  it gets really more difficult to project your voice across that whole area 'cause
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  that noise kinda interferes with that.
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  And that's what this new study examined.
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  They examined pilot whales in the Strait of Gibraltar.
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  And the research found that shipping noise may be interfering
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  with whale communication.
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  And that Strait of Gibraltar is one of the busiest shipping routes in the world.
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  And pilot whales rely heavily on sound.
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  So that's a big, big problem right there when we just introduced.
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  So most of us experience the world, primarily through sight.
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  We look at around a room, we watch the traffic, we see people approaching.
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  These are just things that we constantly feel, right?
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  But whales don't live in our world.
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  They live in the world of sound.
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  And sound travels much further underwater than in light, like, than in air.
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  For marine mammals, sound is often more important than vision.
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  It's how they communicate.
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  It's how they find their family members.
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  It's how they coordinate movement.
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  It's how they navigate.
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  And it's how they actually grab food too, using echolocation.
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  And according to this new research, the growing amount of shipping traffic in
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  the Strait of Gibraltar is making those conversations increasingly difficult.
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  Like I said, imagine being in this big area and you can't
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  really hear what's going…
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  You can't talk to people who are two, three, four feet away.
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  This becomes a huge problem.
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  I was a marine mammal observer in the Arctic when I was younger, in 2008, 2009.
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  I had the opportunity to go to the Arctic, and the goal there, we were on a ship
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  where there was a seismic survey going on.
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  So we were trailing acoustic guns that were trailing about
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  nine kilometers behind the boat.
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  It was an array of guns, and what that array of guns would do, the array
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  goes down to the bottom, looks for hydrocarbon deposits, and then the
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  sound travels up and it gives a signal.
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  But the thing is, is if you and I were swimming around those guns when they
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  went off, it would blow our eardrums off.
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  That's how loud these guns are.
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  Now, of course, as we mentioned before, being underwater, sound
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  travels, and if you've ever scuba dived or gone swimming and you hear noise
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  underwater, it's difficult to find out where that noise is coming from.
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  It's often disorientating.
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  And so that could also be a problem.
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  Now, when out, we were out there being marine mammal observers,
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  what we would do is we'd watch whales, especially in the Arctic.
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  So we're watching beluga whales, we're watching bowhead whales, and
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  sometimes we saw gray whales as well.
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  Some people saw orcas.
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  I never saw orcas, which is very disappointing, but we were
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  in the Canadian Beaufort Sea.
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  And so, what happened is like we had a specific radius we were looking at, one
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  or two kilometers, depending on where we were in the Beaufort Sea, and that had
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  to do with acoustics of sound travel.
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  And the whole point was once a whale came close within our range or was
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  coming close or looked like it was gonna enter that radius, we know we
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  had to shut the instrumentation off.
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  We were telling the captain and the crew to shut the instrumentation
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  off until that whales got out of the area where the noise would affect.
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  And the reason being is because the noise would affect them so much and
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  then it was so loud that after they heard that or were exposed to it, they
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  wouldn't be able to hear as well.
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  And if they were constantly exposed, and at the time the Arctic was being heavily
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  surveyed for hydrocarbon deposits, they would be like, okay, like this could
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  actually affect their hearing if they're exposed more than once or multiple times.
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  Essentially, like think about if you've ever listened to music in earbuds, and
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  you listen to them as loud as possible.
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  And then when you take them out, you can't hear as well.
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  So you may seem like, uh, things are muffled or things like that.
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  That's how they feel, essentially.
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  And so having that feeling is gonna interrupt communication for feeding,
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  for navigation, for everything.
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  And if you look at pilot whales, going back to the pilot whales,
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  pilot whales can get disoriented.
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  And because they follow one pilot whale, that pilot whale goes off anywhere, like
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  if it gets off course and it beaches itself, the whole pod will beach itself.
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  And that's where we see these mass strandings of pilot whales
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  in specific areas like New Zealand, the UK, and so forth.
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  So it's very important that these animals do not feel disoriented.
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  And I think that's something that people don't realize and something
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  that we should be more of…
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  The amount of noise underwater is absolutely phenomenal in that regard.
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  So, it's quite interesting.
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  And that's where the story kind of shifts from being about whales to being
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  about us because there's so much noise.
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  We produce so much noise.
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  Because the noise isn't coming from nature.
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  It's coming from human activity.
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  It's coming from ships.
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  It's could be coming from sonar.
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  It could be coming from seismic activity, boats, speed boats and stuff.
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  It really does do that kind of stuff.
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  And the thing is, is pilot whales are highly social animals, so they
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  need to have that communication.
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  They live in close family groups.
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  Communication is essential for group cohesion.
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  If we don't have that, things can get disoriented.
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  Either parts of the pod can go off on its own, and that's
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  not good for the entire pod.
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  And noise pollution can reduce communication distance.
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  That means the pod has to be closer together, which could interrupt the
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  way, their natural way of being.
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  The problem likely affects any other marine mammal species, just
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  like I talked about in the bowheads as well as other dolphin species.
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  Pilot whales aren't solitary animals.
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  They're very incredibly social.
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  They travel in groups.
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  They coordinate the movements.
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  They stay connected through sound.
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  Researchers have found that the ship noise can dramatically reduce the distance over
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  which the whales can hear each other.
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  Think about that for a second.
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  Imagine you're talking to a family member across a room,
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  just like I mentioned before.
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  Now imagine somebody turns on a leaf blower.
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  That person's not gonna be able to hear that.
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  You have to raise your voice, or maybe you just stop talking
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  altogether if you need to move closer.
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  That's essentially what's happening with these whales.
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  That's what they're dealing with here.
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  Except the leaf blower doesn't turn off.
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  The ships are always there.
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  The Strait of Gibraltar, the ships are always coming and going.
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  These massive ships, these over 250,000 ton ships, these are extremely loud.
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  And the noise feels like it's coming from all over the place.
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  It's like being at a concert all the time.
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  And I think what you have to ask yourself is like, what would happen
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  if every important conversation in your life became harder?
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  Just think about that.
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  That's essentially what's happening for these animals.
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  You're trying to make sure they're safe, so they're out of harm's way.
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  So you're trying to warn them of something.
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  And if you can't warn your kids or you can't warn an elderly person
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  in your family, that's difficult.
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  If they can't hear you, say like take the elderly person, if they can't
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  hear you well, 'cause some elderly people can't hear as well, then it's
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  difficult to communicate with them what they want to eat, how they're feeling.
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  Trying to communicate with them to say they have to go to the hospital
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  and be treated, it's hard for the doctors to communicate with them
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  because they just can't hear as well.
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  It's difficult to navigate complex environments.
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  It's difficult to have social bonds.
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  I'm not sure if you've ever had like an elderly person who can't hear very
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  well and they're out of conversations.
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  They can't participate in conversations as much 'cause they can't hear as much.
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  That's what happens essentially with pilot whales.
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  If they can't hear, they can't participate in some important conversations.
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  Let's be honest, like we have it easy as humans.
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  Safety for some people is not as difficult to achieve.
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  But when you need to hear someone talk to like, say, get out of
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  the way for something, you wanna make sure you can hear them.
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  So like when we talk about the noise in these habitats, we often
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  refer to it as acoustic habitat.
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  We talk about protecting physical habitat all the time, which is really important.
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  We talk about coral reefs, we talk about seagrass beds, mangroves,
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  salt marshes, anywhere, sponge reefs, and all that kind of stuff.
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  But animals also need healthy sound environments.
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  For humans, we talk about noise pollution, how we need to reduce noise pollution.
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  Well, the same thing goes for animals.
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  Like, just a case in point, another analogy that's very, very, with
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  today's time is data centers.
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  A lot of people are starting to put videos up where they have, like,
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  these sound measurements, these instruments that's, measure sound.
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  And they're showing that houses that are right beside data centers are
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  hearing sounds, like this buzzing sound, loud buzzing sound above what
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  you're normally supposed to hear that could affect your hearing all the
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  time, every day, twenty-four/seven.
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  Obviously, that's not something you want.
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  You can't sell your home if that's the case, or you wanna move, or it's
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  very difficult to just be in that place, living in a place like that
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  when you hear noise all the time.
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  So you have to deal with that.
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  The same thing's happening to species.
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  You need to protect that acoustic habitat.
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  And especially for species that rely on communication, noise
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  pollution is habitat degradation.
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  And I think that's something that could be a really, really difficult thing to do.
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  We often focus on the threats that we can see, but we hardly ever address
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  the threats that we can't see.
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  We can see plastic pollution, we can see oil spills, we
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  can see habitat destruction.
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  That's easy to say over time this habitat has gotten worse.
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  Because we don't always measure noise, it's difficult to manage that.
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  Although, there are some places, especially around whales, and whale
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  watching, like orcas on the west coast of Canada, you have to be
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  with two hundred meters away from the orca to make sure that the noise
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  doesn't affect their natural habitat.
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  So there are certain marine mammals that are protected from that type of thing.
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  And the Marine Mammal Protection Act also protects animals from noise distribution
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  or noise pollution, or it used to.
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  I don't know if it will anymore with this different administration.
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  So, you know, you have noise pollution, chemical pollution, climate impacts.
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  Those are very difficult to measure when you really look at it.
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  Now, I just have to ask a question.
• 11:22
  Like, if you're getting value from this podcast, this is just about the podcast
• 11:25
  from these updates, from these quick shows five days a week, please follow
• 11:28
  the show so you never miss an episode.
• 11:30
  We're gonna be talking about a lot of different stuff
• 11:32
  tomorrow and the day after.
• 11:33
  Monday to Friday is what we do.
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  So don't forget to follow.
• 11:36
  When you follow, it helps us get to the top of charts so that other
• 11:39
  people can learn about the ocean and can follow the ocean as well,
• 11:42
  just as much as you get value.
• 11:44
  So that's always good.
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  Now, what's happening next?
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  Now that we've identified that this area in the Strait of Gibraltar gets
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  a lot of noise, more than normal, and it's affecting pilot whales, shipping
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  traffic is unlikely to decrease.
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  Like, we know that, because business is booming, and this is what we need to do.
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  A lot of things, most things come by boat when we think about how things get
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  to our places, like when we order stuff.
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  Scientists are exploring mitigating options.
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  So slowing vessel speeds can reduce noise, and new ship designs can be quieter.
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  And of course, there's also policy solutions that can help too.
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  Now, I wanna say that the shipping industry has been pretty good,
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  from my understanding, about participating in these types of
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  things to make better efficiency, less noise, looking at shipping lanes.
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  I'm sure they haven't been perfectly cooperative, but you're starting
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  to see this happen a lot more.
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  So I think that's a good thing from the shipping industry to say, "Hey, you know,
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  we're actually looking to help in a way." And I hope they are in that situation
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  in the Strait of Gibraltar as well.
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  The challenge is that shipping isn't going away.
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  Around ninety percent of the global trade moves by sea, not by plane, but by sea.
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  And the products we buy every day arrive on ships, so food, electronics,
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  clothing, furniture, everything.
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  So the solution isn't to eliminate shipping.
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  The question is whether we can make shipping quieter, and how do we do that?
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  And the good news is that researchers and engineers think we can do that.
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  Some studies suggest slower vessel speeds can reduce underwater noise, but I know
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  that's not the objective because the faster we get to places, the more business
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  can be done and people get paid more.
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  Now, new propeller designs can also help, and different
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  engine technologies can help.
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  So we've started to see some activities in there.
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  The challenge is that all of those solutions require awareness first.
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  Without awareness, people are not gonna change.
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  People have to recognize there's a problem before they're willing to
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  solve it, and hopefully it doesn't take orcas sinking some of these
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  ships to get less noise being done.
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  I want you to think about how important it is to reduce this noise.
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  It's going to reduce noise pollution in the ocean around the world, essentially.
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  If we start mandating that ships have better propellers, slower
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  speeds, better designs, these are all things that we can manage, and
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  we can help by reducing the noise.
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  We may not get rid of the noise altogether, but we can make significant
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  fronts and significant advances in changing that and see what happens.
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  But you can't manage what you can't measure.
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  And so having a monitoring system and measuring the level of noise and
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  seeing how much we have to reduce by for pilot whales to be okay,
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  that's something that's interesting.
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  This study itself helps quantify the problem, and science often reveals
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  impacts that were invisible before.
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  So I think that's a really important point is that like a lot of times
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  the engineering and science of it all, we can find stuff that
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  we just didn't realize was there.
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  I think that's the same thing as like when we look at the shark
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  episode that we did on Monday.
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  It's been a long while, I don't even think ever, we had great white
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  on video in the Mediterranean.
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  We didn't know that it was there.
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  It was like invisible to us before 'cause we hadn't really been in that
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  area looking for a shark, obviously, and we just so happened to be around it.
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  Like Healthy Seas, that is, happened to be around it.
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  So, there's ways to be able to detect it.
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  You just have to be in the ocean, spend more time in the ocean, and have
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  research and funding to be able to say, "Hey, you know what? This is something
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  that is important because we need to make sure that we are measuring stuff."
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  And today's story reminds us that even when animals are present, the
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  environment around them may be changing in ways we don't immediately notice.
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  We don't notice how much noise there is 'cause we're probably not in those areas.
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  It's probably not like a very big swimming area.
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  One thing that I find fascinating about ocean conservation, though,
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  is that many of these biggest threats are completely invisible.
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  Carbon dioxide, we didn't really know.
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  We can measure it, but it's really hard to physically see what's happening.
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  Warming oceans, although we can measure it, we don't really notice all that much.
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  It's very anecdotal.
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  And then noise pollution is another thing that we don't really notice.
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  I live in an area where I have train tracks on one side in the front of the
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  house, like a little further, but in the front of the house, and then a highway
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  behind the house a little further.
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  And a lot of times it becomes white noise.
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  So we've been here for over 20 years.
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  And so, a lot of the times, like when we hear the noise, 'cause there's
• 15:56
  an extra wind coming from that area.
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  So if we hear the highway, 'cause there's a wind blowing to the
• 16:00
  south, or if we hear the train, the wind's blowing to the north.
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  And because the wind will take that sound with us.
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  Other than that, it's just kinda white noise.
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  We'll know that the train's there, but we don't really talk about it.
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  We don't really notice.
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  It's not that big of a noise where we are.
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  We're very fortunate.
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  Other places, it's a lot louder, but we're pretty good.
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  It's just kinda like white noise.
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  We just don't realize it, but we don't realize how it affects us either,
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  with these constant noise going off.
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  So that's something that you have to worry about after a while, and
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  I think that's something that's important to really look at.
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  But the most important part of this story isn't that the pilot whales
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  are struggling to hear each other.
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  It's that we're learning the ocean isn't just a physical habitat.
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  It's also an acoustical habitat.
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  And if we want marine mammals to thrive, protecting the ocean means
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  protecting the sounds that allow them to communicate, navigate, and survive.
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  I think that's what's really important is there's multiple scales
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  to conservation and protection, and sometimes it's physical where we can
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  actually see what's being protected, and sometimes it's just audible.
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  It's an acoustic protection.
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  And sometimes it's a taste or smell, like there's some nasty pollutants out
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  there that can really affect the water.
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  Like, we can't detect if there are metals in the water molecules that get
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  ingested or get absorbed into, like, whale blubber or fish or anything like that.
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  But that's the episode for today.
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  I wanna thank you so much for joining me.
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  This has been a fun episode to go over.
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  Obviously, this is a problem that needs to be solved.
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  It can be solved over time, quicker the better.
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  Hopefully, the shipping industry is being included on this conservation action
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  and this trend that we're seeing, and hopefully we can see better rudders,
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  better propellers, better ship design, slower speeds, all that kinda stuff,
• 17:30
  the management could come through.
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  If we manage it, we can protect it, and that's what's really important.
• 17:34
  That's it for today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast.
• 17:37
  I'm your host, Andrew Lewin.
• 17:38
  You can DM me.
• 17:39
  You can do whatever you'd like with those socials.
• 17:41
  You can contact me through there.
• 17:43
  I wanna thank you so much for joining me on today's episode.
• 17:45
  Have a great day.
• 17:46
  We'll talk to you tomorrow, and happy conservation.