1
00:00:01,375 --> 00:00:04,833
This is the sound of orcas
off the coast of Vancouver.

2
00:00:05,333 --> 00:00:10,417
(Whale sounds)

3
00:00:11,417 --> 00:00:14,309
They make these fantastic sounds
not just to communicate,

4
00:00:14,333 --> 00:00:16,476
but also sometimes to echolocate,

5
00:00:16,500 --> 00:00:18,917
to find their way around and to find food.

6
00:00:19,417 --> 00:00:21,059
But that can be tricky sometimes,

7
00:00:21,083 --> 00:00:24,351
because, well, here is the sound
of a ship passing by,

8
00:00:24,375 --> 00:00:25,934
recorded underwater.

9
00:00:25,958 --> 00:00:31,042
(Oscillating sound)

10
00:00:32,452 --> 00:00:34,643
You know, when we think
about marine pollution,

11
00:00:34,667 --> 00:00:36,684
I think we usually think about plastics.

12
00:00:36,708 --> 00:00:38,309
Maybe toxic chemicals,

13
00:00:38,333 --> 00:00:41,434
or even ocean acidification
from climate change.

14
00:00:41,458 --> 00:00:44,893
As a science journalist who often writes
about environmental issues,

15
00:00:44,917 --> 00:00:47,059
those are the things
that have passed my desk

16
00:00:47,083 --> 00:00:49,059
over the past 10 years or so.

17
00:00:49,083 --> 00:00:50,351
But as I recently realized

18
00:00:50,375 --> 00:00:53,434
when I was writing a feature
for the science journal "Nature,"

19
00:00:53,458 --> 00:00:56,726
noise is another
important kind of pollution.

20
00:00:56,750 --> 00:00:58,417
One that often gets ignored.

21
00:00:59,375 --> 00:01:02,393
You know, maybe you've heard
of the dark-skies movement,

22
00:01:02,417 --> 00:01:05,893
which aimed to raise awareness
of the issue of light pollution

23
00:01:05,917 --> 00:01:08,601
and create pockets of unilluminated night,

24
00:01:08,625 --> 00:01:10,518
so that people and animals

25
00:01:10,542 --> 00:01:15,726
could enjoy more natural cycles
of light and dark, night and day.

26
00:01:15,750 --> 00:01:17,059
Well, in much the same way,

27
00:01:17,083 --> 00:01:18,934
there are people now raising awareness

28
00:01:18,958 --> 00:01:20,518
of the issue of noise pollution

29
00:01:20,542 --> 00:01:23,726
and trying to create
pockets of quiet in the ocean,

30
00:01:23,750 --> 00:01:27,583
so that marine life can enjoy
a more natural soundscape.

31
00:01:28,500 --> 00:01:29,809
This is important.

32
00:01:29,833 --> 00:01:32,393
Noise isn't just an irritation.

33
00:01:32,417 --> 00:01:34,518
It can cause chronic stress,

34
00:01:34,542 --> 00:01:36,268
or even physical injury.

35
00:01:36,292 --> 00:01:39,726
It can affect marine life's ability
to find food and mates

36
00:01:39,750 --> 00:01:42,583
and to listen out for predators and more.

37
00:01:43,792 --> 00:01:47,018
Think of all the sounds
we inject into the ocean.

38
00:01:47,042 --> 00:01:49,934
Perhaps one of the most dramatic
is the seismic surveys

39
00:01:49,958 --> 00:01:52,434
used to look for oil and gas.

40
00:01:52,458 --> 00:01:54,684
Air guns produce loud blasts,

41
00:01:54,708 --> 00:01:57,143
sometimes every 10 to 15 seconds,

42
00:01:57,167 --> 00:01:58,726
for months on end.

43
00:01:58,750 --> 00:02:00,809
And they use the reflections
of these sounds

44
00:02:00,833 --> 00:02:02,559
to map the ground beneath.

45
00:02:02,583 --> 00:02:04,042
It can sound like this.

46
00:02:05,917 --> 00:02:10,583
(Explosion sounds)

47
00:02:11,875 --> 00:02:15,184
Then, there's the sound
of the actual drilling for oil and gas,

48
00:02:15,208 --> 00:02:18,393
the construction of things
like offshore wind farms,

49
00:02:18,417 --> 00:02:19,684
sonar

50
00:02:19,708 --> 00:02:23,726
and of course, the nearly constant drone
from more than 50,000 ships

51
00:02:23,750 --> 00:02:25,667
in the global merchant fleet.

52
00:02:26,792 --> 00:02:29,268
Now the natural ocean itself
isn't exactly quiet.

53
00:02:29,292 --> 00:02:31,059
If you put your head under the water,

54
00:02:31,083 --> 00:02:34,643
you can hear cracking ice, wind, rain,

55
00:02:34,667 --> 00:02:36,768
singing whales, grunting fish,

56
00:02:36,792 --> 00:02:38,684
even snapping shrimp.

57
00:02:38,708 --> 00:02:40,726
Altogether, that can create a soundscape

58
00:02:40,750 --> 00:02:42,851
of maybe 50 to 100 decibels,

59
00:02:42,875 --> 00:02:45,809
depending on where and when you are.

60
00:02:45,833 --> 00:02:48,601
But mankind's addition to that
has been dramatic.

61
00:02:48,625 --> 00:02:53,101
It's estimated that shipping has added
three decibels of noise to the ocean

62
00:02:53,125 --> 00:02:55,976
every 10 years in recent decades.

63
00:02:56,000 --> 00:02:57,559
That might not sound like a lot,

64
00:02:57,583 --> 00:02:59,726
but decibels are on a logarithmic scale,

65
00:02:59,750 --> 00:03:01,643
like the Richter scale for earthquakes.

66
00:03:01,667 --> 00:03:05,309
So a small number can actually
represent a large change.

67
00:03:05,333 --> 00:03:09,684
Three decibels means a doubling
of noise intensity in the ocean.

68
00:03:09,708 --> 00:03:10,958
A doubling.

69
00:03:11,750 --> 00:03:13,143
And that's only an estimate,

70
00:03:13,167 --> 00:03:16,309
because no one is actually keeping track
of how noisy the ocean is

71
00:03:16,333 --> 00:03:18,226
all around the world.

72
00:03:18,250 --> 00:03:22,309
There is a body called
the International Quiet Ocean Experiment,

73
00:03:22,333 --> 00:03:23,601
and one of their missions

74
00:03:23,625 --> 00:03:26,125
is to try and plug the hole in that data.

75
00:03:27,542 --> 00:03:28,809
So for example, last year,

76
00:03:28,833 --> 00:03:32,309
they managed to convince
the Global Ocean Observation System

77
00:03:32,333 --> 00:03:33,601
to start including noise

78
00:03:33,625 --> 00:03:36,184
as one of their essential
variables for monitoring,

79
00:03:36,208 --> 00:03:39,000
alongside things
like temperature and salinity.

80
00:03:40,208 --> 00:03:41,476
We do know some things.

81
00:03:41,500 --> 00:03:45,101
We know that sonar can be as loud,
or nearly as loud,

82
00:03:45,125 --> 00:03:46,976
as an underwater volcano.

83
00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:51,184
A supertanker can be as loud
as the call of a blue whale.

84
00:03:51,208 --> 00:03:54,268
The noises we add to the ocean
come in all different frequencies

85
00:03:54,292 --> 00:03:56,351
and can travel great distances.

86
00:03:56,375 --> 00:03:59,393
Seismic surveys off the East Coast
of the United States

87
00:03:59,417 --> 00:04:02,768
can be heard in the middle
of the Atlantic.

88
00:04:02,792 --> 00:04:04,768
In the 1960s, they did an experiment

89
00:04:04,792 --> 00:04:08,018
where they set off a loud noise
off the coast of Perth, Australia,

90
00:04:08,042 --> 00:04:10,476
and they detected it
as far away as Bermuda,

91
00:04:10,500 --> 00:04:13,375
20,000 kilometers away.

92
00:04:15,917 --> 00:04:18,393
So what does all this
sound like to marine life,

93
00:04:18,417 --> 00:04:19,684
what do they hear?

94
00:04:19,708 --> 00:04:21,434
It's kind of difficult to describe.

95
00:04:21,458 --> 00:04:24,643
Sound travels further, faster in water
than it does in air,

96
00:04:24,667 --> 00:04:27,226
and it also packs a different punch.

97
00:04:27,250 --> 00:04:30,393
So sound of the same pressure
will have a different intensity

98
00:04:30,417 --> 00:04:33,893
whether you measure it
in the air or underwater.

99
00:04:33,917 --> 00:04:38,101
Then there's the fact that whales
don't have ears exactly like human ears.

100
00:04:38,125 --> 00:04:39,559
Creatures like zooplankton

101
00:04:39,583 --> 00:04:43,101
don't even have what you would
consider to be ears.

102
00:04:43,125 --> 00:04:44,393
So what does this mean,

103
00:04:44,417 --> 00:04:47,250
what is the impact
on all this marine life?

104
00:04:48,042 --> 00:04:50,393
Perhaps the easiest thing
for scientists to assess

105
00:04:50,417 --> 00:04:51,934
is the effect of acute noise,

106
00:04:51,958 --> 00:04:53,851
really loud sudden blasts

107
00:04:53,875 --> 00:04:56,625
that might cause physical injury
or hearing loss.

108
00:04:57,458 --> 00:05:00,893
Beaked whales, for example,
can go into panicked dives

109
00:05:00,917 --> 00:05:02,726
when exposed to loud noises,

110
00:05:02,750 --> 00:05:06,167
which may even give them
a condition similar to the bends.

111
00:05:07,167 --> 00:05:11,518
In the 1960s, after the introduction
of more powerful sonar technologies,

112
00:05:11,542 --> 00:05:15,434
the number of incidents of mass
whale strandings of beaked whales

113
00:05:15,458 --> 00:05:16,875
went up dramatically.

114
00:05:17,833 --> 00:05:19,601
And it's not just marine mammals,

115
00:05:19,625 --> 00:05:23,893
fish, if they stray too close
to the source of a loud sound,

116
00:05:23,917 --> 00:05:27,184
their fish bladders may actually explode.

117
00:05:27,208 --> 00:05:29,268
The airgun blasts from seismic surveys

118
00:05:29,292 --> 00:05:32,018
can mow down a swath of zooplankton,

119
00:05:32,042 --> 00:05:34,684
the tiny creatures near the base
of the food chain,

120
00:05:34,708 --> 00:05:37,958
or can deform scallop larvae
while they're developing.

121
00:05:39,417 --> 00:05:41,518
Well, what about chronic noise,

122
00:05:41,542 --> 00:05:44,268
the more pervasive issue
of raising background noise

123
00:05:44,292 --> 00:05:45,768
from things like shipping?

124
00:05:45,792 --> 00:05:49,643
That can mask or drown out
the natural soundscape.

125
00:05:49,667 --> 00:05:53,351
Some whales have responded to this
by literally changing their tune,

126
00:05:53,375 --> 00:05:57,768
a little bit like people
shouting to be heard in a noisy nightclub.

127
00:05:57,792 --> 00:06:01,518
And some fish will spend more time
patrolling their borders

128
00:06:01,542 --> 00:06:03,851
and less time caring for their young,

129
00:06:03,875 --> 00:06:05,708
as if they're on high alert.

130
00:06:07,750 --> 00:06:11,184
Chronic noise can affect
people too, of course.

131
00:06:11,208 --> 00:06:14,059
Studies have shown
that people living near busy airports

132
00:06:14,083 --> 00:06:15,601
or really busy highways

133
00:06:15,625 --> 00:06:18,893
may have elevated levels
of cardiovascular disease.

134
00:06:18,917 --> 00:06:21,309
And students living
under busy flight paths

135
00:06:21,333 --> 00:06:24,226
may do worse on some educational tests.

136
00:06:24,250 --> 00:06:27,184
And even while I was
researching this subject,

137
00:06:27,208 --> 00:06:30,351
they were actually blasting out
about three meters of solid granite

138
00:06:30,375 --> 00:06:32,768
from the lot across from my home office

139
00:06:32,792 --> 00:06:34,393
to make room for a new house,

140
00:06:34,417 --> 00:06:36,684
and the constant jittering
of the rock hammer

141
00:06:36,708 --> 00:06:39,434
was driving me completely insane.

142
00:06:39,458 --> 00:06:42,018
And whenever the workers
stopped for a moment,

143
00:06:42,042 --> 00:06:44,167
I could feel my shoulders relax.

144
00:06:45,250 --> 00:06:48,143
This effect has been seen in whales too.

145
00:06:48,167 --> 00:06:50,768
After the terrorist attacks of 9/11,

146
00:06:50,792 --> 00:06:53,976
international shipping largely
ground to a halt for a little while

147
00:06:54,000 --> 00:06:57,059
in the waters off the East Coast
of the United States.

148
00:06:57,083 --> 00:06:58,351
And in that lull,

149
00:06:58,375 --> 00:07:01,643
researchers noticed that endangered
right whales in that region

150
00:07:01,667 --> 00:07:05,458
had fewer chemical markers of stress
in their feces samples.

151
00:07:06,333 --> 00:07:08,893
As one researcher I spoke to likes to say,

152
00:07:08,917 --> 00:07:11,625
"We were stressed,
but the whales weren't."

153
00:07:13,500 --> 00:07:14,768
Now you have to remember,

154
00:07:14,792 --> 00:07:17,018
we have evolved to be a visual species.

155
00:07:17,042 --> 00:07:19,268
We really rely on our eyes.

156
00:07:19,292 --> 00:07:21,434
But marine life relies on sound

157
00:07:21,458 --> 00:07:23,792
the way that we rely on sight.

158
00:07:25,458 --> 00:07:27,809
For them, a noisy ocean

159
00:07:27,833 --> 00:07:31,268
may be as befuddling and even dangerous

160
00:07:31,292 --> 00:07:33,542
as a dense fog is for us.

161
00:07:34,625 --> 00:07:38,226
And maybe sometimes that just means
being a little more stressed,

162
00:07:38,250 --> 00:07:41,434
maybe sometimes it means
spending a little less time with the kids.

163
00:07:41,458 --> 00:07:43,851
Maybe some species can adapt.

164
00:07:43,875 --> 00:07:46,601
But some researchers worry
that for endangered species

165
00:07:46,625 --> 00:07:48,018
already on the brink

166
00:07:48,042 --> 00:07:50,667
noise may be enough
to push them over the edge.

167
00:07:51,917 --> 00:07:54,643
So take, for example,
the southern resident killer whales

168
00:07:54,667 --> 00:07:57,559
that live in the waters
off my home town of Vancouver.

169
00:07:57,583 --> 00:08:00,934
There are only 75, maybe 76 animals left

170
00:08:00,958 --> 00:08:02,476
in this population.

171
00:08:02,500 --> 00:08:04,893
And they're facing a lot of challenges.

172
00:08:04,917 --> 00:08:07,434
There are chemical pollutants
in these waters

173
00:08:07,458 --> 00:08:11,726
and they are running low on the salmon
that they really rely on for food.

174
00:08:11,750 --> 00:08:13,393
And then there's noise.

175
00:08:13,417 --> 00:08:16,143
When researchers studied these
and similar killer whales,

176
00:08:16,167 --> 00:08:20,351
they found that they spend
between 18 and 25 percent less time

177
00:08:20,375 --> 00:08:23,434
feeding in the presence
of loud boat noise.

178
00:08:23,458 --> 00:08:26,351
And that's a lot for a species
that's already struggling

179
00:08:26,375 --> 00:08:28,375
to find enough food to thrive.

180
00:08:29,583 --> 00:08:32,976
The good news, as I heard
from all the researches I spoke to,

181
00:08:33,000 --> 00:08:36,976
is that you can do something
relatively easily about ocean noise.

182
00:08:37,000 --> 00:08:39,684
Unlike the wicked problems
of climate change

183
00:08:39,708 --> 00:08:41,309
and ocean acidification,

184
00:08:41,333 --> 00:08:43,976
you can just dial down
the knob on ocean noise

185
00:08:44,000 --> 00:08:46,167
and see almost immediate impacts.

186
00:08:47,250 --> 00:08:49,726
So for example, in 2017,

187
00:08:49,750 --> 00:08:52,101
the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority

188
00:08:52,125 --> 00:08:54,768
started asking ships to simply slow down

189
00:08:54,792 --> 00:08:56,684
when going through the Haro Strait,

190
00:08:56,708 --> 00:09:00,268
where the southern resident killer whales
are feeding in late summer.

191
00:09:00,292 --> 00:09:02,851
Slower ships are quieter ships.

192
00:09:02,875 --> 00:09:05,143
And because it's Canada, you can just ask,

193
00:09:05,167 --> 00:09:06,434
it can be voluntary.

194
00:09:06,458 --> 00:09:07,726
(Laughter)

195
00:09:07,750 --> 00:09:12,643
(Applause)

196
00:09:12,667 --> 00:09:15,768
In that 2017 trial,
most of the ships complied,

197
00:09:15,792 --> 00:09:18,018
adding about half an hour
to their travel time,

198
00:09:18,042 --> 00:09:20,809
and reducing noise by about 1.2 decibels

199
00:09:20,833 --> 00:09:23,851
or 24 percent of noise intensity.

200
00:09:23,875 --> 00:09:26,643
This year, they decided
to extend the length of time

201
00:09:26,667 --> 00:09:29,559
and the area over which
they're asking ships to slow down.

202
00:09:29,583 --> 00:09:32,958
So hopefully, that has
a positive impact for these whales.

203
00:09:34,542 --> 00:09:36,851
In 2017, the Vancouver
Fraser Port Authority

204
00:09:36,875 --> 00:09:39,768
also introduced discounts in docking fees

205
00:09:39,792 --> 00:09:43,018
for ships that are physically
designed to be quieter.

206
00:09:43,042 --> 00:09:45,809
You know, weirdly, a lot of the noise
from a ship like this

207
00:09:45,833 --> 00:09:49,476
comes from the popping of tiny bubbles
off the back of its propeller.

208
00:09:49,500 --> 00:09:52,601
And you can simply design a ship
to do less of that

209
00:09:52,625 --> 00:09:54,518
and to be quieter.

210
00:09:54,542 --> 00:09:58,309
The International Maritime Organization
has published a huge list of ways

211
00:09:58,333 --> 00:10:00,851
that boats can be made quieter.

212
00:10:00,875 --> 00:10:03,101
And they also have a target

213
00:10:03,125 --> 00:10:05,809
of reducing carbon dioxide emissions
from global shipping

214
00:10:05,833 --> 00:10:08,351
by 50 percent by 2050.

215
00:10:08,375 --> 00:10:11,434
And the great news is that
these two things go hand in hand.

216
00:10:11,458 --> 00:10:14,958
On the whole, a more
efficient ship is a quieter ship.

217
00:10:17,167 --> 00:10:21,059
People have also invented quieter ways
of hammering in the giant posts

218
00:10:21,083 --> 00:10:23,684
needed for giant
wind turbines like this one.

219
00:10:23,708 --> 00:10:26,684
And gentler ways of doing seismic surveys.

220
00:10:26,708 --> 00:10:30,101
And there are some incentives
for using quieter technologies.

221
00:10:30,125 --> 00:10:31,851
The European Union, for example,

222
00:10:31,875 --> 00:10:35,351
has a healthy marine system
directive for 2020.

223
00:10:35,375 --> 00:10:38,268
And one of the ways that they define
a healthy marine system

224
00:10:38,292 --> 00:10:41,518
is by how much noise
is going in those waters.

225
00:10:41,542 --> 00:10:45,268
But on the whole, most waters
remain completely unregulated

226
00:10:45,292 --> 00:10:47,042
when it comes to ocean noise.

227
00:10:48,125 --> 00:10:50,184
But again, most of
the scientists I spoke to

228
00:10:50,208 --> 00:10:53,018
said that there's real momentum
right now in policy circles

229
00:10:53,042 --> 00:10:54,518
to pay attention to this issue

230
00:10:54,542 --> 00:10:57,226
and maybe do something about this issue.

231
00:10:57,250 --> 00:11:01,393
We already know enough to say
that quieter seas are healthier seas.

232
00:11:01,417 --> 00:11:05,434
But now scientists are really scrambling
to come up with the details.

233
00:11:05,458 --> 00:11:07,434
Just how quiet do we need to be?

234
00:11:07,458 --> 00:11:11,934
And where are the best places
to make quiet or preserve quiet?

235
00:11:11,958 --> 00:11:14,375
And how best can we hush our noise?

236
00:11:15,667 --> 00:11:17,601
And you know, I'm not trying to tell you

237
00:11:17,625 --> 00:11:20,518
that noise is the biggest
environmental problem on the planet

238
00:11:20,542 --> 00:11:21,809
or even in the ocean.

239
00:11:21,833 --> 00:11:25,643
But the point is that humankind
has a lot of impacts

240
00:11:25,667 --> 00:11:28,143
on our environmental system.

241
00:11:28,167 --> 00:11:30,309
And these impacts don't act in isolation.

242
00:11:30,333 --> 00:11:32,851
They act together and they multiply.

243
00:11:32,875 --> 00:11:35,309
So even for the ones
that are not so obvious,

244
00:11:35,333 --> 00:11:38,000
we really need to pay attention to them.

245
00:11:39,917 --> 00:11:41,851
I'll tell you about one last experiment,

246
00:11:41,875 --> 00:11:43,476
just because it's so beautiful.

247
00:11:43,500 --> 00:11:44,768
So Rob Williams,

248
00:11:44,792 --> 00:11:48,018
one of the researchers who works
on southern resident killer whales,

249
00:11:48,042 --> 00:11:49,851
also does some work in Bali.

250
00:11:49,875 --> 00:11:51,934
And there, they celebrate
a Hindu tradition

251
00:11:51,958 --> 00:11:54,809
called nyepi, or a day of silence.

252
00:11:54,833 --> 00:11:57,768
And this day, apparently,
is very strictly observed.

253
00:11:57,792 --> 00:11:59,851
No planes take off from the airport,

254
00:11:59,875 --> 00:12:01,434
no boats go out fishing,

255
00:12:01,458 --> 00:12:06,018
the tourists are gently led off the beach
back into their hotel rooms.

256
00:12:06,042 --> 00:12:08,768
And Rob Williams put some
hydrophones in the water there

257
00:12:08,792 --> 00:12:10,184
to see what the impact was,

258
00:12:10,208 --> 00:12:11,518
and it was dramatic.

259
00:12:11,542 --> 00:12:14,268
Sound levels dropped
by six to nine decibels,

260
00:12:14,292 --> 00:12:17,643
about the same
as in the waters after 9/11.

261
00:12:17,667 --> 00:12:20,518
For an "acoustic prospector"
like Williams,

262
00:12:20,542 --> 00:12:22,434
which is what he calls himself,

263
00:12:22,458 --> 00:12:24,726
this silence is golden.

264
00:12:24,750 --> 00:12:28,018
Now he and other researchers
can go back to this place

265
00:12:28,042 --> 00:12:29,662
and see what the fish choose to do

266
00:12:29,686 --> 00:12:32,226
with all this additional
acoustic real estate.

267
00:12:32,250 --> 00:12:36,101
(Sounds of underwater)

268
00:12:36,125 --> 00:12:39,101
I like to think of them
having their own holiday,

269
00:12:39,125 --> 00:12:41,434
feasting and finding mates.

270
00:12:41,458 --> 00:12:43,518
Celebrating their own spot of calm

271
00:12:43,542 --> 00:12:46,226
in an otherwise noisy world.

272
00:12:46,250 --> 00:12:47,518
Thank you.

273
00:12:47,542 --> 00:12:50,042
(Applause)