"Some whale songs can give scientists valuable information about the ocean’s geography, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Science. What’s more, their songs can be used as a form of seismic testing, which uses blasts of sound to map out the ocean floor. Forms of this technology can be harmful to whales and other marine life.
If we’d only listened more closely to whales, we may have not needed to develop certain practices that hurt them.
“I’m not entirely surprised about this study,” said Michael Jasny, director of the Marine Mammal Protection Project at NRDC. “And if you’d asked me to guess which animal this study used, I’d have said fin whales. Fin whale calls have been mistaken for some years as a regular geologic groaning... It took some time before oceanographers figured out this was actually an animal.”
Jasny, who was not involved in this study, noted that scientists and some industries reliant on seismic testing have been exploring for years how to substitute natural sounds, including geologic noises and sounds from animals, for human-made ones."
Molly Taft reports for Earther February 11, 2021.
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