weekly newspaper.
The oceans have become substantially noisier since the Industrial Revolution. New research has shown how human-made noise negatively affects marine lifeforms, disrupting their behaviour, physiology, reproduction and in extreme cases causes death.
Sound is the sensory cue that travels farthest through the ocean and is used by marine animals, from invertebrates to great whales, to interpret and explore their environment and to interact. Using 40 years of research, an international team of experts led by the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia has shown how detrimental noise pollution is.
In the research, published in early February in the journal Science, they explain that there are natural sounds such as the wind blowing over the ocean, waves breaking, rain or hail falling on to the sea surface, and gas bubbles vibrating, rising, and bursting at the surface. There’s noise from earthquakes, undersea volcanoes, and hydrothermal vent
First published in the Daily Maverick 168 weekly newspaper.
The elusive vocals of a potential namesake of Elvis, the King of Rock, may help marine experts understand how certain sea creatures communicate with each other. The recording of the haunting sounds – those of an orca, or killer whale – was recently captured along the False Bay coast.
A shrill squeal with an overlapping squeak towards the end. Followed by a more emphatic squeal and another overlapping squeak.
These sounds, documented in the sea off Fish Hoek in Cape Town on 26 January, mark a first for South Africa – the first time a killer whale’s vocalisations have been recorded in the country.