SOUNDING THE DEPTHS II: The Rising Toll of Sonar, Shipping and Industrial Ocean Noise on Marine Life Principal Author Michael Jasny Coauthors Joel Reynolds Cara Horowitz Andrew Wetzler Project Director Joel Reynolds Natural Resources Defense Council November 2005 ABOUT NRDC The Natural Resources Defense Council is a national nonprofit environmental organization with more than 1 million members and online activists. Since 1970, our lawyers, scientists, and other environmental specialists have worked to protect the world’s natural resources, public health, and the environment. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Visit us at www.nrdc.org. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This report was prepared by NRDC’s Marine Mammal Protection Project, under the direction of Joel Reynolds, in our Los Angeles office. The authors wish to thank the Marisla Foundation, Hawley Family Foundation, and Sun Hill Foundation for their generous support, as well as NRDC’s members, without whom our work to save marine species and habitat would not be possible. We would also like to acknowledge the contributions made by our friends and colleagues Sara Townsend, Dorothée Alsentzer, Angela Haren, Laura Harrison, Daniel Hinerfeld, Chris Kendell, Matthew McKinzie, Gabrielle Savini, and Morgan Wyenn. This report is dedicated to Ben White, a fearless campaigner for marine mammals, who passed away this summer. Few have cared as passionately as Ben about the health of our oceans and the welfare of the creatures that live there. NRDC President: John Adams NRDC Executive Director: Frances Beinecke NRDC Director of Communications: Phil Gutis NRDC Reports Manager: Alexandra Kennaugh Production: Bonnie Greenfield Cover Design: Sue Rossi Cover Photo: V. Martin (SECAC) Copyright 2005 by the Natural Resources Defense Council. 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CONTENTS Executive Summary iv Chapter 1: The Rise of Ocean Noise 1 Chapter 2: Dynamite and Fog—A Survey of Noise Sources 18 Chapter 3: The Tyranny of Small Decisions—Domestic Regulation of Ocean Noise 42 Chapter 4: Noise Without Borders—The Growing International Response 54 Endnotes 64 Tables and Figures Table 1.1 Comparison of Some Major Sources of Undersea Noise 3 Table 1.2 Potential Impacts of Sound in the Marine Environment 7 Table 1.3 Mass Strandings Coincident with Naval or Seismic Activities 8 Table 2.1 Mitigation Measures for Ocean Noise 19 Table 2.2 Active Sonar Systems in Use or Development by NATO Member States 22 Table 2.3 Seismic Exploration Around the World, January 2002–February 2005 31 Table 4.1 International Conventions, Agreements, and Treaties with Relevance to Ocean Noise 56 Figure 2.1 Navy Complexes off the U.S. Coast 27 Figure 2.2 Global Hotspots for Offshore Seismic Exploration (January 2002–February 2005) 29 Figure 2.3 Projections of Future Seismic Surveys in the Gulf of Mexico 32 Figure 2.4 U.S. Gulf of Mexico Seismic Survey Areas by Crew Count (January 2002–February 2005) 33 Figure 2.5 European Seismic Survey Areas by Crew Count (January 2002–February 2005) 34 Figure 2.6 International Shipping Lanes in North American Waters 37 iii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY t is a commonplace among divers and oceanographers Defining the Problem Ithat the ocean is no “silent world,” as Jacques ”Undersea noise pollution is like the death of a Cousteau had written, but an exceptionally noisy thousand cuts. Each sound in itself may not be a place. Most whales and many other marine species matter of critical concern, but taken all together, the depend on sound as they hunt for food, detect preda- noise from shipping, seismic surveys, and military tors, find mates, and maintain their awareness in the activity is creating a totally different environment darkness of the sea. Over the past century, however, the acoustic landscape of the ocean has been trans- than existed even fifty years ago. That high level of formed by human activity. Some biologists have com- noise is bound to have a hard, sweeping impact on pared the increasing levels of background noise in life in the sea. Regulating these sound sources can many places off our coasts to a continuous fog that is be difficult, but one has to start somewhere. Every shrinking the sensory range of marine animals. Others, breath we take is dependent on the ocean. And unless concerned about a growing number of whale mortali- we really understand how that vast system works ties linked to military sonar, have compared the effects and take better care of it, it isn’t just the ocean that’s of intense sound to those of dynamite. Together these in jeopardy. It’s our whole future that’s at stake.” analogies suggest the range of impacts that noise can have: from long-term behavioral change to hearing DR. SYLVIA EARLE, FORMER CHIEF SCIENTIST, NATIONAL OCEANIC & ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION loss to death. Since 1999, when the first edition of this report was published, the scientific record and the public’s aware- about three to five decibels per decade in the band ness of the issue have grown with astonishing rapidity. occupied by commercial ships. In some areas near It has become increasingly clear that the rise of ocean the coast, the sound is persistently several orders of noise presents a significant, long-term threat to an magnitude higher than in less urbanized waters, environment that is utterly dependent on sound. Our raising concerns about chronic impacts on marine life. purpose in this report is to review the science, survey Among the leading contributors to the problem: the leading contributors to the problem, and suggest what might be done to reduce the impacts of noise on Military active sonar systems put out intense sound the sea—before the proliferation of noise sources to detect and track submarines and other targets. Mid- makes the problem unmanageable. frequency tactical sonar, which is currently installed on close to 200 American vessels and on the ships of THE RISE OF AN ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEM other navies, is linked to a growing number of whale There is general agreement that hearing is probably strandings worldwide. Low-frequency sonar, which the primary sense of whales, dolphins, and other has proliferated rapidly over the last decade, can marine species, as vitally important to them as seeing travel hundreds of miles at intensities strong enough is to us. Yet the acoustic environment is increasingly to affect marine mammals. Navies are increasingly overshadowed by a gamut of military, commercial, using both types of systems (a list of which is and industrial sources: dredgers that clear the seabed contained in the report) in coastal waters. for ship traffic, pipelines, and structures; high explosives for removing oil platforms and testing the seaworthi- High-energy seismic surveys are used by industry ness of military ships; pile drivers for construction; to detect oil and gas deposits beneath the ocean floor. harassment devices for fisheries; tunnel borers; drilling Surveys typically involve firing airguns every few platforms; commercial sonar; modems; transmitters; seconds at intensities that, in some cases, can drown and innumerable jet skis and power boats. In deep out whale calls over tens of thousands of square miles. water, background noise seems to be growing by The industry conducts more than 100 seismic surveys iv Natural Resources Defense Council Sounding the Depths II each year off the coast of the United States, and that potential threat from noise, particularly in depleted could increase significantly with the passage of the populations: what has been called a “death of a Energy Policy Act of 2005, which mandates an inven- thousand cuts.” We know that sound can chase some tory of the entire U.S. outer continental shelf. Global animals from their habitat, force some to compromise hot spots (which are mapped in the report) include their feeding, cause some to fall silent, and send some the Gulf of Mexico, the North Sea, and the west coast into what seems like panic. Preliminary attempts at of Africa. modeling the “energetics” of marine mammals (the amount of energy an animal has to spend to compen- The low-frequency rumble of engines, propellers, sate for an intrusion) suggest that even small altera- and other commercial shipping noise can be heard tions in behavior could have significant consequences in virtually every corner of the ocean. Over the last for reproduction or survival if repeated over time. 75 years, the number of merchant ships has tripled, Other impacts include temporary and permanent and their cargo capacity (which relates roughly to the hearing loss, which can compromise an animal’s amount of sound they produce) has increased steadily. ability to function in the wild; chronic stress, which Some believe that the biggest ships will become faster has been associated in land mammals with suppression and larger still, possibly tripling in capacity, and that of the immune system, cardiovascular disease, and their numbers will double over the next 20 to 30 years. other health problems; and the masking of biologically Increasingly, short hauls between ports could take important sounds, which could be disastrous for cargo ships nearer to shore—directly through coastal species, like the endangered fin whale, that are habitat for many marine species. believed to communicate over long distances. Although marine mammals have received most That some types of sound are killing some of the attention, there are increasing signs that noise, species of marine mammals is no longer a matter like other forms of pollution, is capable of affecting of serious scientific debate.