Underwater noise emissions pose threat to marine life

The rising man-made (anthropogenic) underwater noise emissions (UNE) from ships in the Indian waters are posing a threat to the life of marine mammals like Bottlenose Dolphin, Manatees, Pilot Whale, Seal, and Sperm Whale.

Impact of noise pollution on marine life

• The main form of energy for multiple behavioural activities of marine mammals, which include mating, communal interaction, feeding, cluster cohesion and foraging, is based on sound.
• The sound that radiates from ships on a long-term basis affects them and results in internal injuries, loss of hearing ability, change in behavioural responses, masking, and stress. 
• There are Acute and Chronic noise categories in the emissions.
• Continuous shipping movement is identified to be a major contributor to the increase in the global ocean noise level.
• “The frequencies of ships’ underwater self-noise and machinery vibration levels are overlapping the marine species’ communication frequencies in the low-frequency range of less than 500 Hz. This is called masking.
• Masking could have led to a change in the migration route of the marine species to the shallow regions and also making it difficult for them to go back to the deeper water.