We're too noisy, in the OCEAN

[Lobber]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7003587/

[Krom]

We are too noisy everywhere.

[Lobber]

Yes, but who would have thought that we make too much noise in the worlds oceans? According to that article, Whales used to be able to communicate and listen to song over 1000 miles away, and now their effective listening range has been reduced to 100 miles.

[Top Gun]

Humanity sure can suck sometimes...

[Mobius]

Whales: sucks to be you.

But at least it sucks less than 100 years ago. We aren't actively slaughtering them as fast as we can now.

[roid]

from what i've read and seen in the past, the military can be blamed for a lot of it. submarine locator sonar beacons and the like drive whales nuts, and they beach themselves.

[BigSlideHimself]

That sucks but nothing will be done about it. Environmentalists are always pushing for businesses to be required to do this and that (double hull the ships, quieter propellers, etc) but it never happens because government sides with business/military before they'll side with the scientists. The whales will be hurt before trade is, and if it comes down to a beached whale and a nuclear sub sneaking up on NYC I can guarantee nothing will change. Also, scientists who call for change these days seem like the boy who cried wolf. They tend to go to the extreme (and unfeasible) only to retract/change their opinion later; while businesses tend to think they're perfect. Methinks the solution is somewhere in the middle.

[Lobber]

The solution is to get rid of submarines and large topside vessels altogether.

[Iceman]

Yeah that's it ... nuke all the ships so the whales can get laid.

[Dedman]

Yeah that's it ... nuke all the ships so the whales can get laid.

Hey, fat people need love too.

[Mr. Perfect]

Yeah, they just have to pay for it.

[Duper]

There's a couple of things not mentioned here that could be the cause.

First off, the said listening devices are not nearly as numerous now as they were 20 years ago. They navy used to track them and collect data on them, but Reagan fixed that when he started cuts in the military back in the 80's. Last I had heard, there are less than half the listening stations there once was; initially contructed to spy on and detect Soviet subs.

Another thing. Sub's, American and Soviet, are nearly silent. Stealth is everything in that game and engine and prop noise is part of it. It's very difficult to hear a sub these days. Commercial craft; cargo and cruise ships; might make quite a bit of noise, but I doubt that that amounts to enough energy required to generate sound waves powerful enough to dominate the atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans. That is a lot of area.

Also, whale-song is passed from school to school. There are substantially fewer whales than there were 100 years ago. Few whales to mate with. (duh)

all in all and interesting hypothosys, but it doesn't "hold water" very well.

The article doesn't do a very good job of proping up his idea.

[TheCops]

i've never understood why humans think they are above the earths environment. it's such a short sighted way of thinking. we are part of an eco system and our totally bloated over-consumption will bite us in the arse.... rendering all our (or our great grand childrens) conveniences totally useless.

just make the "poor behavior justification horse blockers" bigger... we did it to ourselves.

[roid]

Duper with regard to military, i think it's not so much their engines but their sonar/radar equipment.

yeah the article seems to be concentrating on engines for some reason.

[Couver_]

First off, the said listening devices are not nearly as numerous now as they were 20 years ago. They navy used to track them and collect data on them, but Reagan fixed that when he started cuts in the military back in the 80's.

I agree with the other stuff cept Reagan. He started the Navy build up to over 500 ships and upped the arms race in general. We started outspending the Soviets on the military helping weaken their economy.