0:00:01.381,0:00:04.814
This is the sound of orcas[br]off the coast of Vancouver.

0:00:05.341,0:00:10.412
(Whale sounds)

0:00:11.419,0:00:14.276
They make these fantastic sounds[br]not just to communicate,

0:00:14.300,0:00:16.466
but also sometimes to echolocate,

0:00:16.490,0:00:18.928
to find their way around and to find food.

0:00:19.421,0:00:21.024
But that can be tricky sometimes,

0:00:21.048,0:00:24.349
because, well, here is the sound[br]of a ship passing by,

0:00:24.373,0:00:25.921
recorded underwater.

0:00:25.945,0:00:31.056
(Sound)

0:00:32.452,0:00:34.658
You know, when we think[br]about marine pollution,

0:00:34.682,0:00:36.705
I think we usually think about plastics.

0:00:36.729,0:00:38.301
Maybe toxic chemicals,

0:00:38.325,0:00:41.122
or even ocean acidification[br]from climate change.

0:00:41.479,0:00:44.899
As a science journalist who often writes[br]about environmental issues,

0:00:44.923,0:00:47.050
those are the things[br]that have passed my desk

0:00:47.074,0:00:48.550
over the past 10 years or so.

0:00:49.066,0:00:50.330
But as I recently realized

0:00:50.354,0:00:53.450
when I was writing a feature[br]for the science journal Nature,

0:00:53.474,0:00:56.719
noise is another[br]important kind of pollution.

0:00:56.743,0:00:58.610
One that often gets ignored.

0:00:59.399,0:01:02.391
You know, maybe you've heard[br]of the dark-skies movement,

0:01:02.415,0:01:05.891
which aim to raise awareness[br]of the issue of light pollution,

0:01:05.915,0:01:08.609
and create pockets of unilluminated night

0:01:08.633,0:01:10.514
so that people and animals

0:01:10.538,0:01:15.140
could enjoy more natural cycles[br]of light and dark, night and day.

0:01:15.735,0:01:17.053
Well, in much the same way,

0:01:17.077,0:01:18.926
there are people now raising awareness

0:01:18.950,0:01:20.497
of the issue of noise pollution,

0:01:20.521,0:01:23.722
and trying to create pockets[br]of quiet in the ocean,

0:01:23.746,0:01:27.163
so that marine life can enjoy[br]a more natural sound scape.

0:01:28.492,0:01:29.817
This is important.

0:01:29.841,0:01:32.063
Noise isn't just an irritation.

0:01:32.412,0:01:34.514
It can cause chronic stress,

0:01:34.538,0:01:36.252
or even physical injury.

0:01:36.276,0:01:39.727
It can affect marine life's ability[br]to find food and mates

0:01:39.751,0:01:42.240
and to listen out for predators and more.

0:01:43.780,0:01:47.010
Think of all the sounds[br]we inject into the ocean.

0:01:47.034,0:01:49.946
Perhaps one of the most dramatic[br]is the seismic surveys,

0:01:49.970,0:01:51.985
used to look for oil and gas.

0:01:52.474,0:01:54.680
Air guns produce loud blasts,

0:01:54.704,0:01:57.070
sometimes every 10 to 15 seconds,

0:01:57.094,0:01:58.728
for months on end.

0:01:58.752,0:02:00.822
And they use the reflections[br]of these sounds

0:02:00.846,0:02:02.569
to map the ground beneath.

0:02:02.593,0:02:04.061
It can sound like this.

0:02:05.934,0:02:10.593
(Explosion sounds)

0:02:11.887,0:02:15.172
Then, there's the sound[br]of the actual drilling for oil and gas,

0:02:15.196,0:02:18.395
the construction of things[br]like offshore wind farms,

0:02:18.419,0:02:19.656
sonar,

0:02:19.680,0:02:23.728
and of course, the nearly constant drone[br]from more than 50,000 ships

0:02:23.752,0:02:25.685
in the global merchant fleet.

0:02:26.784,0:02:29.260
Now the natural ocean itself[br]isn't exactly quiet.

0:02:29.284,0:02:31.077
If you put your head under the water,

0:02:31.101,0:02:34.625
you can hear cracking ice, wind, rain,

0:02:34.649,0:02:36.776
singing whales, grunting fish,

0:02:36.800,0:02:38.200
even snapping shrimp.

0:02:38.709,0:02:40.725
Altogether, that can create a sound scape

0:02:40.749,0:02:42.844
of maybe 50 to 100 decibels,

0:02:42.868,0:02:45.242
depending on where and when you are.

0:02:45.845,0:02:48.593
But mankind's addition to that[br]has been dramatic.

0:02:48.617,0:02:53.109
It's estimated that shipping has added[br]three decibels of noise to the ocean

0:02:53.133,0:02:55.333
every 10 years in recent decades.

0:02:55.942,0:02:57.474
That might not sound like a lot,

0:02:57.498,0:02:59.712
but decibels are on a logarithmic scale,

0:02:59.736,0:03:01.633
like the Richter scale for earthquakes.

0:03:01.657,0:03:05.299
So a small number can actually[br]represent a large change.

0:03:05.323,0:03:09.664
Three decibels means a doubling[br]of noise intensity in the ocean.

0:03:09.688,0:03:10.838
A doubling.

0:03:11.759,0:03:13.117
And that's only an estimate,

0:03:13.141,0:03:16.244
because no one is actually keeping track[br]of how noisy the ocean is

0:03:16.268,0:03:17.668
all around the world.

0:03:18.268,0:03:22.316
There is a body called the International[br]Quiet Ocean Experiment,

0:03:22.340,0:03:23.562
and one of their missions

0:03:23.586,0:03:26.132
is to try and plug the hole in that data.

0:03:27.539,0:03:28.793
So for example, last year,

0:03:28.817,0:03:32.307
they managed to convince the Global[br]Ocean Observation System

0:03:32.331,0:03:33.490
to start including noise

0:03:33.514,0:03:36.180
as one of their essential[br]variables for monitoring,

0:03:36.204,0:03:38.997
alongside things[br]like temperature and salinity.

0:03:40.204,0:03:41.370
We do know some things.

0:03:41.394,0:03:45.093
We know that sonar can be as loud,[br]or nearly as loud,

0:03:45.117,0:03:46.974
as an underwater volcano.

0:03:46.998,0:03:50.609
A supertanker can be as loud[br]as the call of a blue whale.

0:03:51.212,0:03:54.251
The noises we add to the ocean[br]come in all different frequencies

0:03:54.275,0:03:56.347
and can travel great distances.

0:03:56.371,0:03:59.387
Seismic surveys off the East Coast[br]of the United States

0:03:59.411,0:04:02.001
can be heard in the middle[br]of the Atlantic.

0:04:02.775,0:04:04.775
In the 1960s, they did an experiment

0:04:04.799,0:04:08.013
where they set off a loud noise[br]off the coast of Perth, Australia,

0:04:08.037,0:04:10.457
and they detected it[br]as far away as Bermuda,

0:04:10.481,0:04:13.389
20,000 kilometers away.

0:04:15.937,0:04:18.389
So what does all this[br]sound like to marine life,

0:04:18.413,0:04:19.571
what do they hear?

0:04:19.595,0:04:21.293
It's kind of difficult to describe.

0:04:21.317,0:04:24.643
Sound travels further, faster in water[br]than it does in air,

0:04:24.667,0:04:26.886
and it also packs a different punch.

0:04:27.236,0:04:30.387
So sound of the same pressure[br]will have a different intensity

0:04:30.411,0:04:33.226
whether you measure it[br]in the air or underwater.

0:04:33.927,0:04:38.094
Then there's the fact that whales[br]don't have ears exactly like human ears.

0:04:38.118,0:04:39.546
Creatures like zooplankton

0:04:39.570,0:04:42.485
don't even have what you would[br]consider to be ears.

0:04:43.120,0:04:44.319
So what does this mean,

0:04:44.343,0:04:47.009
what is the impact[br]on all this marine life?

0:04:48.033,0:04:50.390
Perhaps the easiest thing[br]for scientists to assess

0:04:50.414,0:04:51.926
is the effect of acute noise,

0:04:51.950,0:04:53.857
really loud sudden blasts

0:04:53.881,0:04:56.628
that might cause physical injury[br]or hearing loss.

0:04:57.474,0:05:00.900
Beaked whales, for example,[br]can go into panicked dives

0:05:00.924,0:05:02.717
when exposed to loud noises,

0:05:02.741,0:05:06.185
which may even give them[br]a condition similar to the bends.

0:05:07.153,0:05:11.529
In the 1960s, after the introduction[br]of more powerful sonar technologies,

0:05:11.553,0:05:15.442
the number of incidents of mass[br]whale strandings of beaked whales

0:05:15.466,0:05:16.866
went up dramatically.

0:05:17.823,0:05:19.593
And it's not just marine mammals,

0:05:19.617,0:05:23.913
fish, if they stray too close[br]to the source of a loud sound,

0:05:23.937,0:05:26.505
their fish bladders may actually explode.

0:05:27.204,0:05:29.283
The airgun blasts from seismic surveys

0:05:29.307,0:05:32.006
can mow down a swath of zooplankton,

0:05:32.030,0:05:34.704
the tiny creatures near the base[br]of the food chain.

0:05:34.728,0:05:37.974
Or can deform scallop larvae[br]while they're developing.

0:05:39.403,0:05:41.522
Well, what about chronic noise

0:05:41.546,0:05:44.255
the more pervasive issue[br]of raising background noise

0:05:44.279,0:05:45.783
from things like shipping?

0:05:45.807,0:05:49.077
That can mask or drown out[br]the natural sound scape.

0:05:49.673,0:05:53.355
Some whales have responded to this[br]by literally changing their tune,

0:05:53.379,0:05:57.140
a little bit like people,[br]shouting to be heard in a noisy nightclub.

0:05:57.821,0:06:01.529
And some fish will spend more time[br]patrolling their borders

0:06:01.553,0:06:03.831
and less time caring for their young,

0:06:03.855,0:06:05.721
as if they're on high alert.

0:06:07.736,0:06:10.688
Chronic noise can affect[br]people too, of course.

0:06:11.212,0:06:14.054
Studies have shown that people[br]living near busy airports

0:06:14.078,0:06:15.609
or really busy highways

0:06:15.633,0:06:18.903
may have elevated levels[br]of cardiovascular disease.

0:06:18.927,0:06:21.300
And students living[br]under busy flight paths

0:06:21.324,0:06:23.728
may do worse on some educational tests.

0:06:24.252,0:06:27.164
And even while I was[br]researching this subject,

0:06:27.188,0:06:30.356
they were actually blasting out[br]about three meters of solid granite

0:06:30.380,0:06:32.783
from the lot across from my home office

0:06:32.807,0:06:34.403
to make room for a new house,

0:06:34.427,0:06:36.680
and the constant jittering[br]of the rock hammer

0:06:36.704,0:06:38.904
was driving me completely insane.

0:06:39.466,0:06:41.998
And whenever the workers[br]stopped for a moment,

0:06:42.022,0:06:44.155
I could feel my shoulders relax.

0:06:45.260,0:06:48.145
This effect has been seen in whales too.

0:06:48.169,0:06:50.768
After the terrorist attacks of 9/11,

0:06:50.792,0:06:53.958
international shipping largely[br]ground to a halt for a little while

0:06:53.982,0:06:57.077
in the waters off the East Coast[br]of the United States.

0:06:57.101,0:06:58.275
And in that lull,

0:06:58.299,0:07:01.656
researchers noticed that endangered[br]right whales in that region

0:07:01.680,0:07:05.466
had fewer chemical markers of stress[br]in their feces samples.

0:07:06.339,0:07:08.903
As one researcher I spoke to likes to say,

0:07:08.927,0:07:11.860
"We were stressed,[br]but the whales weren't."

0:07:13.498,0:07:14.728
Now you have to remember,

0:07:14.752,0:07:17.006
we have evolved to be a visual species.

0:07:17.030,0:07:19.276
We really rely on our eyes.

0:07:19.300,0:07:21.431
But marine life relies on sound

0:07:21.455,0:07:23.455
the way that we rely on sight.

0:07:25.450,0:07:27.791
For them, a noisy ocean

0:07:27.815,0:07:31.283
may be as befuddling and even dangerous

0:07:31.307,0:07:33.560
as a dense fog is for us.

0:07:34.609,0:07:38.236
And maybe sometimes that just means[br]being a little more stressed,

0:07:38.260,0:07:41.434
maybe sometimes it means[br]spending a little less time with the kids.

0:07:41.458,0:07:43.392
Maybe some species can adapt.

0:07:43.863,0:07:46.609
But some researchers worry[br]that for endangered species

0:07:46.633,0:07:47.998
already on the brink

0:07:48.022,0:07:51.222
noise may be enough[br]to push them over the edge.

0:07:51.911,0:07:54.625
So take for example,[br]the southern resident killer whales

0:07:54.649,0:07:57.577
that live in the waters[br]off my home town of Vancouver.

0:07:57.601,0:08:00.950
There are only 75, maybe 76 animals left

0:08:00.974,0:08:02.506
in this population.

0:08:02.530,0:08:04.895
And they're facing a lot of challenges.

0:08:04.919,0:08:07.443
There are chemical pollutants[br]in these waters

0:08:07.467,0:08:11.712
and they are running low on the salmon[br]that they really rely on for food.

0:08:11.736,0:08:13.387
And then there's noise.

0:08:13.411,0:08:16.157
When researchers studied these[br]and similar killer whales,

0:08:16.181,0:08:20.363
they found that they spend[br]between 18 and 25 percent less time

0:08:20.387,0:08:23.427
feeding in the presence[br]of loud boat noise.

0:08:23.451,0:08:26.371
And that's a lot for a species[br]that's already struggling

0:08:26.395,0:08:28.395
to find enough food to thrive.

0:08:29.593,0:08:32.982
The good news, as I heard[br]from all the researches I spoke to,

0:08:33.006,0:08:36.378
is that you can do something[br]relatively easily about ocean noise.

0:08:36.989,0:08:39.665
Unlike the wicked problems[br]of climate change

0:08:39.689,0:08:41.307
and ocean acidification,

0:08:41.331,0:08:43.972
you can just dial down[br]the knob on ocean noise

0:08:43.996,0:08:46.159
and see almost immediate impacts.

0:08:47.244,0:08:49.720
So for example, in 2017,

0:08:49.744,0:08:52.093
the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority

0:08:52.117,0:08:54.776
started asking ships to simply slow down

0:08:54.800,0:08:56.687
when going through the Haro Strait,

0:08:56.711,0:09:00.252
where the southern resident killer whales[br]are feeding in late summer.

0:09:00.276,0:09:02.342
Slower ships are quieter ships.

0:09:02.855,0:09:05.138
And because it's Canada, you can just ask,

0:09:05.162,0:09:06.368
it can be voluntary.

0:09:06.392,0:09:07.702
(Laughter)

0:09:07.726,0:09:11.996
(Applause)

0:09:12.646,0:09:15.774
In that 2017 trial,[br]most of the ships complied,

0:09:15.798,0:09:18.006
adding about half an hour[br]to their travel time,

0:09:18.030,0:09:20.815
and reducing noise by about 1.2 decibels

0:09:20.839,0:09:23.339
or 24 percent of noise intensity.

0:09:23.895,0:09:26.643
This year, they decided[br]to extend the length of time

0:09:26.667,0:09:29.551
and the area over which[br]they're asking ships to slow down.

0:09:29.575,0:09:32.963
So hopefully, that has[br]a positive impact for these whales.

0:09:34.551,0:09:36.844
In 2017, the Vancouver[br]Fraser Port Authority

0:09:36.868,0:09:39.783
also introduced discounts in docking fees

0:09:39.807,0:09:42.577
for ships that are physically[br]designed to be quieter.

0:09:43.038,0:09:45.807
You know, weirdly, a lot of the noise[br]from a ship like this

0:09:45.831,0:09:49.434
comes from the popping of tiny bubbles[br]off the back of its propeller.

0:09:49.458,0:09:52.593
And you can simply design a ship[br]to do less of that

0:09:52.617,0:09:53.817
and to be quieter.

0:09:54.561,0:09:58.319
The International Maritime Organization[br]has published a huge list of ways

0:09:58.343,0:10:00.296
that boats can be made quieter.

0:10:00.887,0:10:03.118
And they also have a target

0:10:03.142,0:10:05.824
of reducing carbon dioxide emissions[br]from global shipping

0:10:05.848,0:10:08.014
by 50 percent by 2050.

0:10:08.387,0:10:11.451
And the great news is that these[br]two things go hand in hand.

0:10:11.475,0:10:14.974
On the whole, a more[br]efficient ship is a quieter ship.

0:10:17.165,0:10:21.045
People have also invented quieter ways[br]of hammering in the giant posts

0:10:21.069,0:10:23.760
needed for giant[br]wind turbines like this one.

0:10:23.784,0:10:26.672
And gentler ways of doing seismic surveys.

0:10:26.696,0:10:30.106
And there are some incentives[br]for using quieter technologies.

0:10:30.130,0:10:31.860
The European Union, for example,

0:10:31.884,0:10:35.048
has a healthy marine system[br]directive for 2020.

0:10:35.367,0:10:38.260
And one of the ways that they define[br]a healthy marine system

0:10:38.284,0:10:41.045
is by how much noise[br]is going in those waters.

0:10:41.530,0:10:45.276
But on the whole, most waters[br]remain completely unregulated

0:10:45.300,0:10:47.233
when it comes to ocean noise.

0:10:48.125,0:10:50.197
But again, most of[br]the scientists I spoke to

0:10:50.221,0:10:52.998
said that there's real momentum[br]right now in policy circles

0:10:53.022,0:10:54.506
to pay attention to this issue

0:10:54.530,0:10:56.743
and maybe do something about this issue.

0:10:57.236,0:11:01.389
We already know enough to say[br]that quieter seas are healthier seas.

0:11:01.413,0:11:05.167
But now scientists are really scrambling[br]to come up with the details.

0:11:05.469,0:11:07.429
Just how quiet do we need to be?

0:11:07.453,0:11:11.556
And where are the best places[br]to make quiet or preserve quiet?

0:11:11.969,0:11:14.365
And how best can we hush our noise?

0:11:15.683,0:11:17.604
And you know, I'm not trying to tell you

0:11:17.628,0:11:20.516
that noise is the biggest[br]environmental problem on the planet

0:11:20.540,0:11:21.823
or even in the ocean.

0:11:21.847,0:11:25.649
But the point is that humankind[br]has a lot of impacts

0:11:25.673,0:11:27.757
on our environmental system.

0:11:28.173,0:11:30.299
And these impacts don't act in isolation.

0:11:30.323,0:11:32.847
They act together and they multiply.

0:11:32.871,0:11:35.323
So even for the ones[br]that are not so obvious,

0:11:35.347,0:11:38.014
we really need to pay attention to them.

0:11:39.934,0:11:41.863
I'll tell you about one last experiment,

0:11:41.887,0:11:43.387
just because it's so beautiful.

0:11:43.411,0:11:44.562
So Rob Williams,

0:11:44.586,0:11:47.823
one of the researchers who works[br]on southern resident killer whales,

0:11:47.847,0:11:49.847
also does some work in Bali.

0:11:49.871,0:11:51.942
And there, they celebrate[br]a Hindu tradition

0:11:51.966,0:11:54.378
called nyepi, or a day of silence.

0:11:54.823,0:11:57.774
And this day, apparently,[br]is very strictly observed.

0:11:57.798,0:11:59.870
No planes take off from he airport,

0:11:59.894,0:12:01.433
no boats go out fishing,

0:12:01.457,0:12:05.377
the tourists are gently led off the beach[br]back into their hotel rooms.

0:12:06.036,0:12:08.777
And Rob Williams put some[br]hydrophones in the water there

0:12:08.801,0:12:10.172
to see what the impact was,

0:12:10.196,0:12:11.537
and it was dramatic.

0:12:11.561,0:12:14.286
Sound levels dropped[br]by six to nine decibels,

0:12:14.310,0:12:16.953
about the same[br]as in the waters after 9/11.

0:12:17.675,0:12:20.501
For an "acoustic prospector"[br]like Williams,

0:12:20.525,0:12:22.422
which is what he calls himself,

0:12:22.446,0:12:24.731
this silence is golden.

0:12:24.755,0:12:28.000
Now he and other researchers[br]can go bask to this place

0:12:28.024,0:12:29.659
and see what the fish choose to do

0:12:29.683,0:12:32.238
with all this additional[br]acoustic real estate.

0:12:32.262,0:12:35.405
(Sounds of underwater)

0:12:36.135,0:12:39.103
I like to think of them[br]having their own holiday,

0:12:39.127,0:12:41.444
feasting and finding mates.

0:12:41.468,0:12:43.508
Celebrating their own spot of calm

0:12:43.532,0:12:45.547
in an otherwise noisy world.

0:12:46.246,0:12:47.412
Thank you.

0:12:47.436,0:12:50.054
(Applause)