WEBVTT

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In 1956,

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a documentary by Jacque Cousteau
won both the Palm d'Or

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and an Oscar award.

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This film was called
"Le Monde de Silence,"

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or, "The Silent World."

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And the premise of the title

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was that the underwater world
was a quiet world.

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We now know 60 years later

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that the underwater world
is anything but silent.

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Although the sounds
are inaudible above water

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depending on where you are
and the time of year,

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the underwater soundscape can be
as noisy as any jungle or rainforest.

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Invertebrates like snapping shrimp,
fish and marine mammals

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all use sound.

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They use sound to study their habitat,

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to keep in communication with each other,

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to navigate,

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to detect predators and prey.

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And they also use sound by listening
to know something about their environment.

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Take for an example, the arctic.

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It's considered a vast,
inhospitable place,

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sometimes described as a desert

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because it is so cold and so remote,

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and ice-covered much of the year.

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And despite this,

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there is no place on Earth
that I would rather be than the Arctic,

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especially as days lengthen
and spring comes.

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To me,

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the Arctic really embodies this disconnect
between what we see on the surface

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and what's going on under water.

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You can look out across the ice,

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all white and blue and cold,

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and see nothing.

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But if you could hear underwater,

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the sounds you would hear
would at first amaze

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and then delight you.

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And while your eyes are seeing nothing
for kilometers but ice,

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your ears are telling you that out there
are bowhead and beluga whales,

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walrus and beared deals.

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The ice, too, makes sounds.

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It screeches and cracks
and pops and groans

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as it collides and rubs when temperature
or currents and winds change.

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And under 100 percent sea ice
in the dead of winter,

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Bowhead whales are singing.

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And you would never expect that

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because we humans,

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we tend to be very visual animals.

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For most of us --

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but not all --

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our sense of sight is how
we navigate our world.

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For marine mammals that live underwater,

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where chemical cues and light
transmit poorly,

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sound is the sense by which they see.

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And sound transmits very well under water,

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much better than it does in air,

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so signals can be heard
over great distances.

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In the Arctic,

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this is especially important

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because not only do Arctic marine
mammals have to hear each other,

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but they also have to listen
for cues in the environment

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that might indicate
heavy ice ahead or open water.

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Remember, although they spend
most of their lives underwater,

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they are mammals,

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and so they have to surface to breathe.

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So they might listen
for thin ice or no ice,

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or listen for echoes off nearby ice.

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Arctic marine animals live in a rich
and very underwater soundscape.

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In the spring,

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it can be a cacophony of sound.

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(Arctic sound)

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But when the ice is frozen solid,

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and there are no big temperature
shifts or current changes,

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the underwater Arctic has some
of the lowest ambient noise levels

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of the world's oceans.

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But this is changing.

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This is primarily due to a decrease
in seasonal sea ice,

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which is a direct result of human
greenhouse gas emissions.

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We are in effect,

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with climate change,

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conducting a completely uncontrolled
experiment with our planet.

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Over the past 30 years,

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areas of the Arctic have seen
decreases in seasonal sea ice

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from anywhere from
six weeks to four months.

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This decrease in sea ice is sometimes
referred to as an increase

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in the open water season.

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That is the time of year when
the Arctic is navigatable to vessels.

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And not only is the extent
of ice changing,

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but the age and the width of ice is, too.

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Now, you may well have heard

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that a decrease in sea ice is causing
a loss of habitat for animals

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that rely on sea ice,

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such as ice seals,
or walrus, or polar bears.

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Decreasing sea ice is also causing
increased erosion

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along coastal villages,

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and changing prey availability
from marine birds and mammals.

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Climate change and decreases in sea ice

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are also altering the underwater
sound scape of the Arctic.

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What do I mean by soundscape?

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Those of us who eavesdrop
on the oceans for a living

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use instruments called hydrophones,

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which are underwater microphones,

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and we record ambient noise --

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the noise all around us.

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And the soundscape describes
the different contributors

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to this noise field.

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What we are hearing on our hydrophones

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are the very real sounds
of climate change.

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We are hearing these changes
from three fronts:

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from the air,

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from the water

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and from land.

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First, air.

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Wind on water creates waves.

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These waves make bubbles;

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the bubbles break.

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And when they do,

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they make noise.

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And this noise is like a hiss
or a static in the background.

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In the Arctic when it's ice-covered,

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most of the noise from wind
doesn't make it into the water column

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because they ice acts as a buffer
between the atmosphere and the water.

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And this is one of the reasons

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that the Arctic can have very low
ambient noise levels.

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But with decreases in seasonal sea ice,

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not only is the Artic now open
to this wave noise,

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but the number storms

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and the intensity of storms
in the Arctic has been increasing.

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All of this is raising noise levels
in a previously quiet ocean.

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Second --

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water.

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With less seasonal sea ice,

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sub-Arctic species are moving North,

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and taking advantage of the new habitat
that is created by more open water.

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Now, Arctic whales,

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like this Bowhead,

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they have no dorsal fin

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because they have evolved to live
and swim in ice-covered waters,

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and having something sticking
off of your back is not very conducive

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to migrating through ice,

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and may, in fact, be excluding
animals from the ice.

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But now, everywhere we've listened,

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we're hearing the sounds
of Fin whales and Humpback whales

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and Killer whales,

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further and further North,

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and later and later in the season.

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We are hearing, in essence,

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an invasion of the Arctic
by sub-Arctic species.

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And we don't know what this means.

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Will there be competition for food

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between Arctic and sub-Arctic animals?

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Might this sub-Arctic species
introduce diseases

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or parasites into the Arctic?

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And what are the new sounds
that they are producing

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doing to the soundscape under water?

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And third --

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land.

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And by land, I mean people.

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More open water means increased
human use of the Arctic.

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Just this past summer,

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a massive cruise ship made its way
through the Northwest passage --

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the once mythical route between
Europe and the Pacific.

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Decreases in sea ice have allowed
humans to occupy the Arctic more often.

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It has allowed increases in oil
and gas exploration and extraction,

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the potential for commercial shipping,

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as well as increased tourism.

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And we now know that ship noise increases
levels of stress hormones in whales,

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and can disrupt feeding behavior.

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Air guns,

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which produce loud,
low-frequency "whoomps"

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every 10 to 20 seconds,

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changed the swimming and vocal
behavior of whales.

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And all of these sound sources
are decreasing the acoustic space

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over which Arctic marine mammals
can communicate.

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Now, Arctic marine mammals are used to
very high levels of noise

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at certain times of the year.

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But this is primarily from other
animals or from sea ice,

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and these are the sounds
with which they've evolved,

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and these are sounds that are vital
to their very survival.

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These new sounds
are loud and they're alien.

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They might impact the environment
in ways that we think we understand,

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but also in ways that we don't.

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Remember, sound is the most
important sense for these animals.

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And not only is the physical habitat
of the Arctic changing rapidly,

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but the acoustic habitat is, too.

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It's as if we've plucked these animals up
from the quiet countryside

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and dropped them into a big city
in the middle of rush hour.

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And they can't espcape it.

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So what can we do now?

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We can't decrease wind speeds

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or keep sub-Arctic animals
from migrating north,

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but we can work on local solutions

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to reducing human-caused
underwater noise.

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One of these solutions
is to slow down ships

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that traverse the Arctic,

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because a slower ship is a quieter ship.

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We can restrict access
in seasons and regions

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that are important for mating,
or feeding or migrating.

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We can get smarter about quieting ships,

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and find better ways
to explore the ocean bottom.

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And the good news is,

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there are people
working on this right now.

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But ultimately,

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we humans have to do the hard work

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of reversing or at the very
least decelerating

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human-caused atmospheric changes.

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So let's return to this idea
of a silent world under water.

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It's entirely possible

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that many of the whales
swimming in the Arctic today,

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especially long-lived species
like the bowhead whale

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that the Inuits say can live
two human lives --

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it's possible that these whales
were alive in 1956

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when Jacques Cousteau made his film.

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And in retrospect,

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considering all the noise
we are creating in the oceans today,

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perhaps it really was "The Silent World."

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Thank you.

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(Applause)