BACKGROUND INFORMATION

UNDERWATER NOISE POLLUTION

Have you ever spent a few moments in the engine room of an industrial manufacturing plant? Imagine having to spend your whole life in such a place. Such are the circumstances which sea creatures must endure. Oil drilling, ship and boat engines, not to mention military shelling have shattered the silence that filled the Deep for billions of years.

For whales and dolphins, whose hearing capability is much more sensitive than humans, such conditions can cause brain hemorrhaging. In many parts of the world, unbearable noise levels underwater are leading them to flee their natural habitats. In extreme cases, underwater noise levels can lead sea mammals to mass beaching.