Deep Blue Dissonance

Article Tools

Image Gallery

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

Stocker uses kurtosis, the statistical term for a graph’s spikes and dips, to contrast synthetic sound with the ocean’s natural clamor. Applied to acoustics, “ ‘high kurtosis’ refers to a sound that has a very peaky spectrum,” Stocker says. “It’s grating and obnoxious, and to animals it indicates things that are fast and out of control.” Think the squeal of tires on pavement as you slam on the brakes.

“High kurtosis sounds are rare in nature,” Stocker explains, “and understanding that is going to be the key to managing noise in the ocean.” He envisions a day when everything from military sonar to ships’ propellers could be tweaked to sound more like the singing of humpbacks and less like the screaming of electronics and metal.

While we wait for industry to embrace the principles of biomimicry, Stocker, like Hildebrand, advocates developing stricter acoustic criteria for the places where whales are known to congregate. In the Northern Atlantic, part-time home to a few hundred grievously endangered right whales, the Canadian government requires ships to slow down and steer around whale habitat. Could international laws someday require mariners to quiet their ships as they approach coastal waters where cetaceans feed and raise their young?

Hildebrand thinks it’s possible. “In the same way there are regulations about what ships can discharge, there could be regulations about noise,” he suggests. “They can’t come in discharging oil. Maybe someday in the future they can’t come in discharging sound.”

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print