Date: November 5, 2018
Source: Acoustical Society of America
The western Canadian Arctic's
natural underwater soundscape has been shielded from the din of commercial shipping
by the sea ice that covers the area, rendering it mostly inaccessible to
shipping vessels. But with large amounts of ice shrinking in the Arctic Ocean,
a growing number of ships are gaining access to the area. This trend is
expected to accelerate.
One concern with vessel transits
is how noise pollution can detrimentally affect marine animals -- including
Arctic cod -- given the critical importance of these fish in the Arctic food
web.
"Noise from shipping traffic
can lead to acoustic masking, reducing the ability of cod and other marine
animals to detect and use sound for communication, foraging, avoiding
predators, reproduction, and navigation," said Matt Pine, a research
fellow at the University of Victoria and Wildlife Conservation Society Canada
(WCS Canada).
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