Anthropogenic threats - Whales and dolphins

Abstract

Anthropogenic threats Like their relatives around the world, whales and dolphins in the Pacific islands now face a whole new range of threats, most of which are new hazards: Noise The oceans are now much noisier places than in previous years. Modern ships are generally bigger, faster and noisier. This is a particular problem for whales and dolphins, which rely primarily on sound to communicate with each other and to locate their prey, and loud noises mask their own sounds. Industrial developments Some of the loudest and most intrusive noises in the ocean come from industrial developments such as pile-driving, dredging, and the seismic surveys undertaken to identify deposits of hydorcarbons, as well as hydrographic mapping and military exercises involving the use of powerful sonars. A new potential hazard of unknown magnitude is deep-sea mining, which may not only generate considerable noise, but also produce sediment plumes from the mining of the seabed that could interfere with the normal beh