What Happens When Whales Can’t Hear Their Families?

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Imagine trying to have a
conversation with your family

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while standing beside a jet engine.

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Now imagine that noise never stops.

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That's the reality for some pilot
whales living in one of the busiest

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shipping corridors in the world.

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This is the How to Protect the Ocean
podcast, your weekday ocean news update.

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listening to this episode right now.

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Listen, a new study highlighted by
Mongabay found that pilot whales

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in the Strait of Gibraltar may be
struggling to hear each other because

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of noise from commercial ships.

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That's how busy it is in that corridor.

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And you can't really blame them.

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It's a huge corridor going
into the Mediterranean, coming

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out of the Mediterranean.

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So I can't really blame it for being that
loud when there's so much going on within.

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So many countries are
involved in the Mediterranean.

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They line the Mediterranean.

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And so it makes it really
difficult to navigate that traffic.

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And while that might sound like a
niche whale story, it's actually

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about something much bigger.

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And today we're gonna answer a
simple question: What happens

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when the ocean gets so loud
that whales can't communicate?

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Now, let's just talk about whales
for a second and in the way that they

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communicate, because it's not well known
to people who are not scientists and

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people who are not interested in whales,
but whales communicate by sound, and each

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whale species has their own dialect.

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And even within whale species, the
pods tend to have their own dialect

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for many species, like orcas and stuff.

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I don't know if it's for every
species, but they tend to

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develop their own language.

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And so that's a way for them to be
able to communicate across, like, tens

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if not hundreds of kilometers away.

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These pods are huge, like sometimes
greater than 50, sometimes even 100.

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And so they can't all just be
scrunched up in the middle of the pod.

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A lot of times they're spread out and
they have to communicate over a distance.

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And when they can't communicate or
there's other noise that gets in the way,

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that interrupts their communication, and
they just don't know what's going on.

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So imagine like you have a son
or daughter, you have a kid.

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And they're in the-- maybe five or
six, and you're in a busy place.

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If you are in a busy place and your
son or daughter or kid goes a little

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further away, and say they're like
maybe five feet away, and you yell

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out, they might be able to hear you.

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They're probably gonna be able to hear
if you yell out long, loud enough.

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But if the noise gets louder and
louder or you're at a concert, it's

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really difficult for you to hear.

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Imagine being like a kilometer away.

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Obviously you don't wanna be that far away
from your kid in a busy area, but then

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it gets really more difficult to project
your voice across that whole area 'cause

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that noise kinda interferes with that.

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And that's what this new study examined.

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They examined pilot whales
in the Strait of Gibraltar.

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And the research found that
shipping noise may be interfering

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with whale communication.

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And that Strait of Gibraltar is one of
the busiest shipping routes in the world.

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And pilot whales rely heavily on sound.

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So that's a big, big problem right
there when we just introduced.

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So most of us experience the
world, primarily through sight.

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We look at around a room, we watch the
traffic, we see people approaching.

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These are just things that
we constantly feel, right?

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But whales don't live in our world.

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They live in the world of sound.

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And sound travels much further underwater
than in light, like, than in air.

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For marine mammals, sound is
often more important than vision.

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It's how they communicate.

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It's how they find their family members.

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It's how they coordinate movement.

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It's how they navigate.

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And it's how they actually grab
food too, using echolocation.

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And according to this new research, the
growing amount of shipping traffic in

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the Strait of Gibraltar is making those
conversations increasingly difficult.

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Like I said, imagine being in
this big area and you can't

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really hear what's going…

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You can't talk to people who
are two, three, four feet away.

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This becomes a huge problem.

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I was a marine mammal observer in the
Arctic when I was younger, in 2008, 2009.

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I had the opportunity to go to the Arctic,
and the goal there, we were on a ship

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where there was a seismic survey going on.

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So we were trailing acoustic
guns that were trailing about

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nine kilometers behind the boat.

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It was an array of guns, and what
that array of guns would do, the array

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goes down to the bottom, looks for
hydrocarbon deposits, and then the

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sound travels up and it gives a signal.

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But the thing is, is if you and I were
swimming around those guns when they

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went off, it would blow our eardrums off.

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That's how loud these guns are.

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Now, of course, as we mentioned
before, being underwater, sound

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travels, and if you've ever scuba dived
or gone swimming and you hear noise

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underwater, it's difficult to find
out where that noise is coming from.

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It's often disorientating.

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And so that could also be a problem.

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Now, when out, we were out there
being marine mammal observers,

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what we would do is we'd watch
whales, especially in the Arctic.

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So we're watching beluga whales,
we're watching bowhead whales, and

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sometimes we saw gray whales as well.

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Some people saw orcas.

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I never saw orcas, which is
very disappointing, but we were

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in the Canadian Beaufort Sea.

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And so, what happened is like we had a
specific radius we were looking at, one

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or two kilometers, depending on where we
were in the Beaufort Sea, and that had

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to do with acoustics of sound travel.

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And the whole point was once a whale
came close within our range or was

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coming close or looked like it was
gonna enter that radius, we know we

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had to shut the instrumentation off.

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We were telling the captain and the
crew to shut the instrumentation

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off until that whales got out of the
area where the noise would affect.

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And the reason being is because the
noise would affect them so much and

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then it was so loud that after they
heard that or were exposed to it, they

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wouldn't be able to hear as well.

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And if they were constantly exposed, and
at the time the Arctic was being heavily

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surveyed for hydrocarbon deposits, they
would be like, okay, like this could

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actually affect their hearing if they're
exposed more than once or multiple times.

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Essentially, like think about if you've
ever listened to music in earbuds, and

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you listen to them as loud as possible.

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And then when you take them
out, you can't hear as well.

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So you may seem like, uh, things
are muffled or things like that.

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That's how they feel, essentially.

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And so having that feeling is gonna
interrupt communication for feeding,

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for navigation, for everything.

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And if you look at pilot whales,
going back to the pilot whales,

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pilot whales can get disoriented.

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And because they follow one pilot whale,
that pilot whale goes off anywhere, like

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if it gets off course and it beaches
itself, the whole pod will beach itself.

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And that's where we see these
mass strandings of pilot whales

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in specific areas like New
Zealand, the UK, and so forth.

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So it's very important that these
animals do not feel disoriented.

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And I think that's something that
people don't realize and something

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that we should be more of…

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The amount of noise underwater is
absolutely phenomenal in that regard.

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So, it's quite interesting.

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And that's where the story kind of
shifts from being about whales to being

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about us because there's so much noise.

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We produce so much noise.

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Because the noise isn't
coming from nature.

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It's coming from human activity.

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It's coming from ships.

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It's could be coming from sonar.

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It could be coming from seismic
activity, boats, speed boats and stuff.

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It really does do that kind of stuff.

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And the thing is, is pilot whales
are highly social animals, so they

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need to have that communication.

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They live in close family groups.

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Communication is essential
for group cohesion.

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If we don't have that,
things can get disoriented.

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Either parts of the pod can
go off on its own, and that's

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not good for the entire pod.

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And noise pollution can
reduce communication distance.

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That means the pod has to be closer
together, which could interrupt the

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way, their natural way of being.

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The problem likely affects any
other marine mammal species, just

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like I talked about in the bowheads
as well as other dolphin species.

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Pilot whales aren't solitary animals.

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They're very incredibly social.

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They travel in groups.

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They coordinate the movements.

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They stay connected through sound.

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Researchers have found that the ship noise
can dramatically reduce the distance over

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which the whales can hear each other.

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Think about that for a second.

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Imagine you're talking to a
family member across a room,

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just like I mentioned before.

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Now imagine somebody
turns on a leaf blower.

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That person's not gonna
be able to hear that.

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You have to raise your voice, or
maybe you just stop talking

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altogether if you need to move closer.

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That's essentially what's
happening with these whales.

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That's what they're dealing with here.

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Except the leaf blower doesn't turn off.

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The ships are always there.

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The Strait of Gibraltar, the
ships are always coming and going.

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These massive ships, these over 250,000
ton ships, these are extremely loud.

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And the noise feels like it's
coming from all over the place.

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It's like being at a concert all the time.

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And I think what you have to ask
yourself is like, what would happen

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if every important conversation
in your life became harder?

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Just think about that.

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That's essentially what's
happening for these animals.

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You're trying to make sure they're
safe, so they're out of harm's way.

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So you're trying to
warn them of something.

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And if you can't warn your kids or
you can't warn an elderly person

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in your family, that's difficult.

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If they can't hear you, say like take
the elderly person, if they can't

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hear you well, 'cause some elderly
people can't hear as well, then it's

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difficult to communicate with them what
they want to eat, how they're feeling.

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Trying to communicate with them to
say they have to go to the hospital

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and be treated, it's hard for the
doctors to communicate with them

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because they just can't hear as well.

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It's difficult to navigate
complex environments.

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It's difficult to have social bonds.

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I'm not sure if you've ever had like
an elderly person who can't hear very

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well and they're out of conversations.

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They can't participate in conversations
as much 'cause they can't hear as much.

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That's what happens
essentially with pilot whales.

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If they can't hear, they can't participate
in some important conversations.

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Let's be honest, like we
have it easy as humans.

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Safety for some people is
not as difficult to achieve.

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But when you need to hear someone
talk to like, say, get out of

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the way for something, you wanna
make sure you can hear them.

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So like when we talk about the
noise in these habitats, we often

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refer to it as acoustic habitat.

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We talk about protecting physical habitat
all the time, which is really important.

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We talk about coral reefs, we talk
about seagrass beds, mangroves,

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salt marshes, anywhere, sponge
reefs, and all that kind of stuff.

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But animals also need
healthy sound environments.

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For humans, we talk about noise pollution,
how we need to reduce noise pollution.

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Well, the same thing goes for animals.

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Like, just a case in point, another
analogy that's very, very, with

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today's time is data centers.

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A lot of people are starting to put
videos up where they have, like,

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these sound measurements, these
instruments that's, measure sound.

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And they're showing that houses that
are right beside data centers are

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hearing sounds, like this buzzing
sound, loud buzzing sound above what

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you're normally supposed to hear that
could affect your hearing all the

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time, every day, twenty-four/seven.

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Obviously, that's not something you want.

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You can't sell your home if that's
the case, or you wanna move, or it's

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very difficult to just be in that
place, living in a place like that

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when you hear noise all the time.

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So you have to deal with that.

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The same thing's happening to species.

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You need to protect that acoustic habitat.

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And especially for species that
rely on communication, noise

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pollution is habitat degradation.

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And I think that's something that could
be a really, really difficult thing to do.

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We often focus on the threats that we
can see, but we hardly ever address

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the threats that we can't see.

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We can see plastic pollution,
we can see oil spills, we

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can see habitat destruction.

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That's easy to say over time
this habitat has gotten worse.

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Because we don't always measure
noise, it's difficult to manage that.

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Although, there are some places,
especially around whales, and whale

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watching, like orcas on the west
coast of Canada, you have to be

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with two hundred meters away from
the orca to make sure that the noise

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doesn't affect their natural habitat.

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So there are certain marine mammals that
are protected from that type of thing.

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And the Marine Mammal Protection Act also
protects animals from noise distribution

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or noise pollution, or it used to.

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I don't know if it will anymore
with this different administration.

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So, you know, you have noise pollution,
chemical pollution, climate impacts.

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Those are very difficult to
measure when you really look at it.

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Now, I just have to ask a question.

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Like, if you're getting value from this
podcast, this is just about the podcast

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00:11:25,625 --> 00:11:28,725
from these updates, from these quick
shows five days a week, please follow

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00:11:28,725 --> 00:11:30,355
the show so you never miss an episode.

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00:11:30,365 --> 00:11:32,145
We're gonna be talking about
a lot of different stuff

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tomorrow and the day after.

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Monday to Friday is what we do.

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So don't forget to follow.

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When you follow, it helps us get
to the top of charts so that other

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people can learn about the ocean
and can follow the ocean as well,

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just as much as you get value.

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So that's always good.

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Now, what's happening next?

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Now that we've identified that this
area in the Strait of Gibraltar gets

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a lot of noise, more than normal, and
it's affecting pilot whales, shipping

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traffic is unlikely to decrease.

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Like, we know that, because business is
booming, and this is what we need to do.

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A lot of things, most things come by
boat when we think about how things get

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to our places, like when we order stuff.

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Scientists are exploring
mitigating options.

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So slowing vessel speeds can reduce noise,
and new ship designs can be quieter.

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And of course, there's also policy
solutions that can help too.

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Now, I wanna say that the shipping
industry has been pretty good,

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from my understanding, about
participating in these types of

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things to make better efficiency,
less noise, looking at shipping lanes.

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I'm sure they haven't been perfectly
cooperative, but you're starting

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to see this happen a lot more.

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So I think that's a good thing from the
shipping industry to say, "Hey, you know,

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we're actually looking to help in a way."
And I hope they are in that situation

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in the Strait of Gibraltar as well.

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The challenge is that
shipping isn't going away.

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Around ninety percent of the global trade
moves by sea, not by plane, but by sea.

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And the products we buy every day
arrive on ships, so food, electronics,

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clothing, furniture, everything.

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So the solution isn't
to eliminate shipping.

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The question is whether we can make
shipping quieter, and how do we do that?

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And the good news is that researchers
and engineers think we can do that.

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Some studies suggest slower vessel speeds
can reduce underwater noise, but I know

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that's not the objective because the
faster we get to places, the more business

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can be done and people get paid more.

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Now, new propeller designs
can also help, and different

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engine technologies can help.

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So we've started to see
some activities in there.

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The challenge is that all of those
solutions require awareness first.

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Without awareness, people
are not gonna change.

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People have to recognize there's a
problem before they're willing to

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solve it, and hopefully it doesn't
take orcas sinking some of these

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ships to get less noise being done.

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I want you to think about how
important it is to reduce this noise.

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It's going to reduce noise pollution in
the ocean around the world, essentially.

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If we start mandating that ships
have better propellers, slower

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speeds, better designs, these are
all things that we can manage, and

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we can help by reducing the noise.

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We may not get rid of the noise
altogether, but we can make significant

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fronts and significant advances in
changing that and see what happens.

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But you can't manage
what you can't measure.

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And so having a monitoring system
and measuring the level of noise and

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seeing how much we have to reduce
by for pilot whales to be okay,

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that's something that's interesting.

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This study itself helps quantify the
problem, and science often reveals

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impacts that were invisible before.

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So I think that's a really important
point is that like a lot of times

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the engineering and science of
it all, we can find stuff that

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we just didn't realize was there.

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I think that's the same thing as
like when we look at the shark

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episode that we did on Monday.

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It's been a long while, I don't
even think ever, we had great white

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on video in the Mediterranean.

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We didn't know that it was there.

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It was like invisible to us before
'cause we hadn't really been in that

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area looking for a shark, obviously,
and we just so happened to be around it.

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Like Healthy Seas, that is,
happened to be around it.

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So, there's ways to be able to detect it.

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You just have to be in the ocean,
spend more time in the ocean, and have

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research and funding to be able to say,
"Hey, you know what? This is something

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that is important because we need to
make sure that we are measuring stuff."

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And today's story reminds us that
even when animals are present, the

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environment around them may be changing
in ways we don't immediately notice.

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We don't notice how much noise there is
'cause we're probably not in those areas.

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It's probably not like a
very big swimming area.

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One thing that I find fascinating
about ocean conservation, though,

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is that many of these biggest
threats are completely invisible.

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Carbon dioxide, we didn't really know.

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We can measure it, but it's really hard
to physically see what's happening.

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Warming oceans, although we can measure
it, we don't really notice all that much.

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It's very anecdotal.

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And then noise pollution is another
thing that we don't really notice.

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I live in an area where I have train
tracks on one side in the front of the

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house, like a little further, but in the
front of the house, and then a highway

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behind the house a little further.

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And a lot of times it becomes white noise.

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So we've been here for over 20 years.

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And so, a lot of the times, like when
we hear the noise, 'cause there's

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an extra wind coming from that area.

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So if we hear the highway, 'cause
there's a wind blowing to the

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south, or if we hear the train,
the wind's blowing to the north.

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00:16:04,005 --> 00:16:05,865
And because the wind will
take that sound with us.

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00:16:05,895 --> 00:16:07,565
Other than that, it's
just kinda white noise.

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We'll know that the train's there,
but we don't really talk about it.

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We don't really notice.

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00:16:10,585 --> 00:16:12,575
It's not that big of a noise where we are.

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We're very fortunate.

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Other places, it's a lot
louder, but we're pretty good.

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It's just kinda like white noise.

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00:16:17,105 --> 00:16:19,945
We just don't realize it, but we don't
realize how it affects us either,

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with these constant noise going off.

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00:16:21,892 --> 00:16:25,952
So that's something that you have
to worry about after a while, and

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I think that's something that's
important to really look at.

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00:16:28,379 --> 00:16:30,879
But the most important part of this
story isn't that the pilot whales

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are struggling to hear each other.

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00:16:32,549 --> 00:16:35,689
It's that we're learning the ocean
isn't just a physical habitat.

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It's also an acoustical habitat.

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00:16:37,789 --> 00:16:41,009
And if we want marine mammals to
thrive, protecting the ocean means

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00:16:41,009 --> 00:16:45,729
protecting the sounds that allow them
to communicate, navigate, and survive.

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00:16:46,112 --> 00:16:48,822
I think that's what's really
important is there's multiple scales

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00:16:48,822 --> 00:16:51,902
to conservation and protection, and
sometimes it's physical where we can

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00:16:51,902 --> 00:16:54,512
actually see what's being protected,
and sometimes it's just audible.

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00:16:54,572 --> 00:16:56,072
It's an acoustic protection.

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00:16:56,432 --> 00:16:59,852
And sometimes it's a taste or smell,
like there's some nasty pollutants out

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00:16:59,852 --> 00:17:01,389
there that can really affect the water.

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00:17:01,389 --> 00:17:04,994
Like, we can't detect if there are
metals in the water molecules that get

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00:17:05,014 --> 00:17:09,724
ingested or get absorbed into, like, whale
blubber or fish or anything like that.

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00:17:09,784 --> 00:17:11,124
But that's the episode for today.

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00:17:11,154 --> 00:17:13,464
I wanna thank you so much for joining me.

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00:17:13,464 --> 00:17:14,994
This has been a fun episode to go over.

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00:17:14,994 --> 00:17:16,954
Obviously, this is a problem
that needs to be solved.

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00:17:17,120 --> 00:17:19,224
It can be solved over
time, quicker the better.

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00:17:19,354 --> 00:17:22,554
Hopefully, the shipping industry is being
included on this conservation action

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00:17:22,554 --> 00:17:25,974
and this trend that we're seeing, and
hopefully we can see better rudders,

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00:17:25,984 --> 00:17:30,120
better propellers, better ship design,
slower speeds, all that kinda stuff,

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the management could come through.

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If we manage it, we can protect it,
and that's what's really important.

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00:17:34,734 --> 00:17:37,464
That's it for today's episode of the
How to Protect the Ocean podcast.

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00:17:37,484 --> 00:17:38,704
I'm your host, Andrew Lewin.

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00:17:38,914 --> 00:17:39,774
You can DM me.

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00:17:39,774 --> 00:17:41,744
You can do whatever you'd
like with those socials.

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00:17:41,904 --> 00:17:43,347
You can contact me through there.

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00:17:43,547 --> 00:17:45,787
I wanna thank you so much for
joining me on today's episode.

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00:17:45,797 --> 00:17:46,397
Have a great day.

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00:17:46,397 --> 00:17:49,257
We'll talk to you tomorrow,
and happy conservation.