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Quieting the Global Growl
Underwater noise from ships has gotten louder, reshaping marine ecosystems and the lives of animals that depend on sounds to eat, mate, and navigate. Can ships ever pipe down?
In Vancouver, British Columbia, orange gantry cranes at the Vanterm and Centerm container docks rear their giant heads above downtown, and freighters moor in English Bay like a herd of great iron cattle, but that’s as close as most people get. My home for the past decade, Victoria, British Columbia, lacks container docks, but we do face the Juan de Fuca Strait, a major lane for every ship bound for the ports of Vancouver, Seattle, or Tacoma. The perspective was echoed by Roger Payne and Scott McVay in their 1971 paper: “During the quiet age of sail, under conditions of exceptional calm and proximity, whalers were occasionally able to hear the sounds of whales transmitted faintly through a wooden hull.
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