Noise pollution

What is Sound Pollution?

Noise Pollution or Sound Pollution is when the exposure of people or animals to levels of sound that are annoying, stressful, or damaging to the ears. Although loud and frightening sounds are part of nature, only in recent centuries has much of the world become urban, industrial, and chronically noisy. The machines used in factories make noise throughout the day, and this disturbs the peaceful atmosphere in the vicinity, as machines used without proper covering lead to sound pollution. Noise is one of the most pervasive pollution in America.

How is Sound Pollution Measured?

Noise intensity is measured in decibel units. The decibel scale is logarithmic; each 10-decibel increase represents a tenfold increase in noise intensity.
What Causes Sound Pollution?Most noise pollution comes from machines, especially automobiles, trucks, and aircraft. Construction equipment, farm machines, and the din of machinery inside factories can be dangerously loud. Some home appliances, shop tools, lawnmowers, and leaf blowers can also be noisy, as are guns, firecrackers, and some toys. Even music, when played at very high volume, particularly through personal headphones, is as damaging to the ears as a roaring chain saw.

What is the danger for whales ?

In spite of what Jacques Cousteau has said, the oceans are a long way from being a "world of silence". The wind, tectonic plate movement, and whale song compose a complex web of sound. But for fifty years now, human activities have completely transformed this sound web. Biologists have coined the term "noise pollution" and are worried about what effects it may have on marine mammals. Why ? One reason is that the oceans have become very noisy, and the level of noise is on the increase. Another reason is that marine mammals depend on sound in order to find their bearings as well as to feed, reproduce, and socialise. First there was hunting, then habitat loss and chemical contamination.

Does noise also represent a serious threat to whales ?
Noisy oceans....

Shipping, the mining and petroleum industries, military activities, acoustic thermometry, and fisheries all contribute to the relentless increase in sound levels in the oceans.
With globalisation, the merchant fleet has doubled in size and quadrupled in tonnage. All of these ships (tankers, tug-boats, freighters, ice-breakers, etc.) fill every nook and cranny of the seas with a constant rumbling in the frequency band around 500 Hz.