Greenhouse gases make oceans noisier: UN, wildlife groups

WATER WORLD

Legal expert Veronica Frank of the International Fund for Animal Welfare said ocean noise has doubled each decade for the past 40 years and is expected to keep increasing. "Blue whales' capacity to communicate has been reduced by 90 percent," she said.

by Staff Writers
Rome (AFP) Dec 3, 2008
Greenhouse gases worsen ocean noise by raising acidity levels and causing sound to travel farther, making it ever harder for marine mammals to communicate, UN and wildlife experts said Wednesday.

"Acidity is a new, strange and unwanted development... for a whole range of marine animals," Mark Simmonds of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society told a news conference.

Simmonds, the society's scientific director, was speaking as the UN Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS) began three days of debate on a resolution aimed at combatting ocean noise, which is caused primarily by shipping, oil and gas exploration and military sonars.

"Noisy activities are producing an acoustic fog that prevents whales from maintaining social groups, finding each other for breeding purposes, and so forth," Simmonds said.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California, which is studying the rising acidity of seawater, says on its website: "As the oceans become more acidic, sounds will travel farther," notably low-frequency sounds "used by marine mammals to find food and mates."

Legal expert Veronica Frank of the International Fund for Animal Welfare said ocean noise has doubled each decade for the past 40 years and is expected to keep increasing.

"Blue whales' capacity to communicate has been reduced by 90 percent," she said.

The proposed resolution would urge the 110 parties to the CMS to mitigate the impact of ocean noise on vulnerable species, assess the environmental impact of sound-producing activities and avoid the use of high-intensity naval sonars that could pose risks for marine mammals.

The issue of ocean noise is an "international hot potato" because of the commercial and military interests involved, Simmonds said.

One study found that sounds from seismic surveys using powerful airguns travelled more than 3,000 kilometers (1,800 miles) from the source, the UN Environment Programme said in a communique.

Sound naturally travels farther in water than air because water has more mass.

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS
Solar Energy Solutions
Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ...

Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News

WATER WORLD

Ocean Growing More Acidic Faster Than Once Thought

Chicago IL (SPX) Nov 27, 2008
University of Chicago scientists have documented that the ocean is growing more acidic faster than previously thought. In addition, they have found that the increasing acidity correlates with increasing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, according to a paper published online by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Nov. 24.

INTERNET SPACE Yahoo up on reports of new takeover bid NASA Tests First Deep-Space Internet Wired ... but frustrated Qualcomm to link people to Internet without computers	LAUNCH PAD Russia To Launch Two Telecoms Satellites In February 2009 Russia Launches New Space Freighter To ISS South Korea To Launch Maritime Weather Satellite Next Year Sea Launch Partners With Intelsat On Multi-Launch Agreement
AEROSPACE NASA studies pilot cognition China postpones talks with Airbus: spokesman Two China airlines to get govt aid: state media China's air show saw four bln dollars in deals: report	MILITARY COMMUNICATIONS Boeing Develops Common Software To Reduce Risk For TSAT USAF Tests Battlespace Information Solution On AC-130 Gunship Harris Awarded Contract For USAF Satellite Control Network Program LockMart Delivers Key Hardware For US Navy's Mobile User Objective System
TECH SPACE ESA Satellites Flying In Formation Kazakhstan Admits Losing Satellite Astronomers hope to see orbiting tool bag Please don't litter space, scientists say	APPOINTMENTS Berndt Feuerbacher New President Of IAU Orbital Appoints Frank Culbertson And Mark Pieczynski To Management Chris Smith Named Director Of Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory AsiaSat Appoints New General Manager China
EARTH OBSERVATION GIS Development Gives Award To Institute Of Photogrammetry UNESCO Signs Partnership With JAXA NASA Selects NOAA GOES-R Series Spacecraft Contractor Ball Aerospace Completes CDR For Landsat's Operational Land Imager	GPS NEWS Garmin Aids AA Fleet Rapid Response Networks In Motion Integrates INRIX Total Fusion Traffic Trimble Introduces Juno Series Of Economical GPS Handhelds Spirent Communications Delivers Over-The-Air A-GPS Test Solution

The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright Space.TV Corporation. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space.TV Corp on any Web page published or hosted by Space.TV Corp. Privacy Statement