Whale Wednesday: the Din Down Below - Oceana USA
Home / Blog / Whale Wednesday: the Din Down Below

September 23, 2009

Whale Wednesday: the Din Down Below

Adding to the clatter about ocean noise comes the first study indicating that whales increase their calls in response to underwater noise. Scientists studying blue whales off the eastern Canadian coast found that the giants changed their calls in response to an underwater seismic survey. On days with seismic surveys, the whales made two-and-half-times more calls than on days without, probably because they have to “repeat information”, as some of the communication is lost or degraded by the seismic activity. Sounds a lot like trying to have a conversation on your cell phone while riding the DC Metro. So what do the increased calls mean for the cetaceans? As one of the researchers said, “Our research doesn’t say anything about whether this increase in call rate is negative for the animals, but of course it’s not positive and it may be stressful.”