Our oceans need silence, not the thunder of exploitation

A few weeks ago, the e-newsletter Science for Environment Policy from the EU Commission provided a briefing on underwater noise. The brief tried, at least in my opinion, to downplay the risks of intense underwater noise sources.

Almost at the same time, the findings of two new scientific studies were released, demonstrating that noise interrupts feeding behaviour in whales and elevates the risk of strandings. The timing couldn’t have been better so far as the debate about this topic is concerned, decision-makers trying to prevent serious measures from being taken which would seriously address this risk for the marine environment.

You might well wonder why they’d be more interested in prolonging a problem than offering a solution. But when talking about those responsible for emitting such intense sound levels into our oceans, we’re talk about two of the most powerful industries in the world – the military and the petroleum industry.

I am not intending to bore you with facts and figures, but to briefly describe the issue. Active sonar is used by military vessels during exercises and routine deployments to search for objects such as hostile submarines. These mid- and low-frequency sonar systems emit pulses of sound for more than 100 seconds at a time, for hours on end. These pulses are emitted with as much energy and in as narrow a range as possible. Low-frequency sonar serves as a way of putting large areas under surveillance and saturates thousands of cubic kilometres of water with sound. Military sonar uses frequencies between 0.1 and 10kHz and can reach up to 230 decibels. That is equivalent to the sound generated by a space rocket launch.

Seismic airguns are primarily used for oil and gas exploration on the seabed. Air is driven into the water and towards the seabed at high pressure. The sound can penetrate thousands of metres of ocean before heading up to hundreds of kilometres into the earth crust. Up to 20 guns are fired at the same time, with each of them emitting sound every ten seconds, often for 24 hours per day and for several weeks on end in the same spot. Hydrophones are used to listen and chart the echoes. As easily extractable resources are depleted, seismic surveys are continually spreading to more sensitive marine habitats and being conducted to ever greater depths.

OC_Fotovirals_Facebook_Welle_1-2_eThe Mediterranean Sea is the subject to one of the most progressive regional agreements intending to protect whales and dolphins. The Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans in the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea (ACCOBAMS) prohibits any direct taking of these creatures as well promoting science-based conservation efforts.

So what does ACCOBAMS do to mitigate underwater noise? Well, originally the intentions were most promising. Its Scientific Committee did engage in a process which lasted several years but resulted in very sound and promising guidelines developed by many experts and scientists from the region as well as internationally. Those guidelines had been presented to the member states signed up to ACCOBAMS, which are predominantly southern European as well as north African range states. So, what has been the result?

Member states found themselves unable to adopt the guidelines and make it mandatory for them to be implemented into national action. They felt that they could only “welcome” those guidelines, leaving it open as to whether they would be employed or not. At the time, it was France in particular which – based on its navy’s interests – didn’t want to have any kind of measures formally adopted.

Strandings continue to happen after intensive noise events. It appears that ACCOBAMS member states have turned a blind eye towards those recommendations posed by scientists. The only exception is Spain which, since 2004, has imposed the moratorium for military sonar around the Canary Islands; no beaked whale mass strandings linked to naval exercises have occurred in this region.

We face a rush for exploring and exploiting oil and gas sources in the Mediterranean, even in far deeper waters than in those where the Deepwater Horizon disaster occurred – as an indicator of the corners cut in such a process, when more than 200db explosions were caused by so called ‘airguns’ searching for oil and gas sources on the seabed in the many thousand metres deep Hellenic trench in Greek waters in winter 2012/13, there wasn’t even an environmental impact assessment done prior to the research. Wouldn’t you believe that such highly risky activities in an ocean region, which is the habitat of endangered sperm whales and many other threatened species including beaked whales and various dolphin species, would be subject to such an assessment?

When you learn about the fact that there are already technological practices available which provide the same quality of seismic results as ‘airguns’ but emit much less intense sound into our oceans, one might get angry that such technologies have not yet been made mandatory. But still neither governments nor industries have acted in the best interests of what is not their ocean but a common treasure for future generations to come.

There is an enormous need for raising awareness about marine noise pollution as well as to pressure decision-makers as well as industries for urgent action to be taken, and this certainly requires significant efforts to make those objectives heard – which is the reason for founding the Silent Oceans Coalition and the reason why YOU should support it.

Please become part of this initiative and make your family, friends and colleagues aware of this risk to the marine environment.

OceanCare is delighted to have the Environmental Investigation Agency onboard the Silent Oceans Coalition, with a very simple but certainly not easy to achieve objective – to make our oceans a quieter place than it has become in recent decades.