Sounding the undersea world

Imagine living next to a busy highway operating 24 hours a day for 365 days per year.

That’s what life is like for ocean animals living next to busy shipping lanes.

Not only is such noise pollution stressful, but it hinders the ability of sea life to communicate, find food, avoid obstacles and detect predators.

However, in order to reduce noise pollution, researchers must first understand the use of sound by ocean-dwelling animals. To do so, scientists are turning to bioacoustics and computing. Along the way, they are finding some unexpected linkages to underwater physics experiments such as the Neutrino Mediterranean Observatory/Ocean Noise Detection Experiment, and the ESFRI-funded KM3Net underwater detector — projects originally designed to find neutrinos coming in from outer space.

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