Sound is crucial to whales, dolphins and porpoises and other marine species for navigation, communication and finding food. Cetaceans rely on sound as their primary sense for navigation and communication with other animals and the surrounding environment. Any disturbance or noise that undermines their ability to transmit and recognise sounds may jeopardise their capacity to function and, over the long term, to reproduce and survive.

Underwater noise is an unregulated form of pollution resulting fromhuman activities such as oil and gas exploration, shipping andmilitary operations. Within the EU?s environmental policy there areno specific measures to tackle or control the adverse effects ofnoise on marine protected species and other species in Europeanseas. However, some legislative instruments such as the UN Law ofthe Sea Convention (UNCLOS), the EU Habitats Directive, theprecautionary principle provide the EU Member States with clearobligations to protect marine living resources from disturbance andpollution from energy sources.

A particularly significant threat to marine mammals is representedby military high intensity active sonar. It has the potential tocause physical damage ranging from temporary hearing loss topermanent damage and even death depending on the level of sound towhich whales are exposed. Among the most dramatic environmentalimpacts associated with naval activity ? and particularly the useof high-intensity sonar ? is mass stranding of whales.

In adopting a groundbreaking Resolution on the environmentaleffects of high-intensity active naval sonars, the EuropeanParliament showed in October 2004 its strong support for the needto regulate and reduce this deadly threat to whales. Anoverwhelming majority of MEPs called on the EU Member States topursue the adoption of moratoriums and restrictions on the use ofhigh-intensity active sonars in naval operations, including withinthe framework of NATO, to develop alternative technologies and torestrict immediately the use of high-intensity active sonars inwaters under their jurisdiction.

Shortly after the adoption of the EP Resolution, delegates from 16countries meeting in Majorca, Spain adopted at the Conference ofthe Parties to ACCOBAMS (the United Nations Environment Program?sAgreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans of the Black Sea,Mediterranean Sea and Contiguous Atlantic Area) a Resolutionrecognizing man-made ocean noise as a dangerous pollutant which candisturb, injure and even kill whales and other marinespecies.

At the same time, the stakeholders of the EU Marine Strategydecided at a meeting in Rotterdam, the Netherlands to integrateocean noise into the upcoming Proposal of the European Commissionon the EU Marine Strategy.

Further reading:

• Cruelty of Whaling Revealed (July 2006)
• Underwater Noise - A harmful unregulated form of pollution, An IFAW NRDC report prepared for the Stakeholder Meeting on the European Marine Strategy (Rotterdam, November 2004)
  
• ACCOBAMS Resolution on the Assessment and Impact Assessment of Man-Made Noise
  
• European Parliament Resolution on the environmental effects of high-intensity active naval sonars
  
• Fact Sheets:
  
  • Active Sonar in Britain
  • Active Sonar: Impacts on Fisheries
  • Active Sonar: Impacts on Divers
  • Active Sonar: The Need for Regulations
  • Whale strandings associated with military exercises
• The environmental impacts of shipping: a whale's eye view of ships, by Russell Leaper and Vassili Papastavrou

See also our news releases:

• IFAW and NRDC Applaud EP Resolution on Saving Whales from Naval Sonar
• Protecting whales, dolphins and porpoises from the harmful effects of man-made ocean noise

And IFAW's ocean noise posters

Deaf Whale, Dead Whale?