'Acoustic Smog' Threatening Whales

Oct. 9, 2008 -- Underwater cacophony caused by commercial and military ships has become so intense that it is killing whales, scientists at the World Conservation Congress say.

Sounds ranging from the hum of yacht motors to sonar blasts strong enough to destroy a whale's inner ear are wreaking havoc on the ability of these cetaceans to migrate, feed and breed, they said on Thursday as a historic case began to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.

"The noises generated by ships create what I call acoustic smog," said Michel Andre, director of the Laboratory of Applied Bio-Acoustics in Barcelona.

Just as air pollution reduces one's field of vision, "noise pollution in the sea reduces the zone in which whales can feed and hampers their ability to communicate," he said.

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"There is no place in the world's oceans that is untouched."

Many shipping lanes follow the coastal routes that whales have traced for millions of years as they roam the planet's seas.

The result is a crescendo of beachings, strandings and collisions as whales and other sea mammals disoriented or physically damaged by noise lose their bearings.

Recent research on a population of some 300 sperm whales living around the Canary Islands provide an unique window onto the problem.

Sperm whales normally migrate, but the squid upon which they feast are so plentiful in these waters that this group has made the region their permanent home, Andre said.