Marine Wildlife and the Thundering Sounds of Human Creations
- Saylah
- May 12
- 2 min read
(for school) Earlier this year over 150 false killer whales mysteriously washed up on the sands of Australia from a heartbroken, but likely reason. I thoroughly researched ways that make sea animals wash up on land like this, and the likely way is from loud sounds.
These sounds are mostly from working ships on the sea. Noises like these cause marine animals to
get stressed and evacuate their homes. They also cause communication problems with marine mammals that rely on sound.
Whales in this case are especially sensitive to these tragic sounds. For instance, if one whale leaves its pack and moves closer to shore, all of the others follow. They stick together. Because of this many get washed up on shore like the event that happened earlier this year.
This is very sad. Before all of this the ocean was quiet and peaceful. It is not fair for ocean life to be going through these horrible sounds from our human creations, but at the same time these boats help ship things to places all over the world to help us.
Is there a way to help humans while still helping ocean animals? There is! Many scientists have been trying to change this by
Making quieter ship designs
Animal tracking < waiting to see if there are animals is their areas and waiting or moving to a different spot
Regulating noise levels < quiet zones, and timing restrictions
I also researched for all those interested in how much more or less it would cost for engineers to create restrained versions of ships. It would cost 10-30% more, but that would eliminate fines in quiet zones, reduce fuel, and of course protect marine life.
There is no better time than to start donating to ocean life care givers than now. Donate to
Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC) us.whales.org
Ocean Conservation Research (OCR) ocr.org
Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) – Oceans Program nrdc.org
Oceana oceana.org
SeaLegacy sealegacy.org
Sources:
-NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)
-WDC (Whale and Dolphin Conservation)
-Ocean Conservation Research (OCR)
-NRDC ~ Natural Resources Defense Council
-Oceana
-International Maritime Organization (IMO)
-United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
-Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI)
-OceanCare
-International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW)
-Quiet Oceans
-Marine Mammal Commission (U.S.)
This is so sad, but really informative information! Although we as humans have domination over the animals, it is really sad when people don’t care. I didn’t know it could be caused by loud sounds! Do you know why they are called “false” killer whales?