Whales Forced to Shout as Oceans Get Noisier

Photo: m-louis / CC

As anybody who's ever gone to a dance club knows, it's not easy to have quality conversation in loud places -- but party-goers aren't the only ones who have learned to cope with the clamor. According to marine biologists studying whale mating calls, an increasingly noisy ocean is forcing the animals to shout their romantic melodies -- around 10 times louder than they did 50 years ago. Talk about a raucous orca-stra!

Researchers looking at how whales are dealing with rackety seas focused their attention on the waters around Britain. With undersea oil exploration, constant shipping traffic, and even noisy wind-farms, the UK's seas are among the world's loudest -- and it's forcing whales to change their tune. A similar study found the same thing is happening to whales closer to the U.S., too.

Perter Tyack, a biologist from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, explains to The Herald-Sun:

The rumbling noises emitting by ships and marine installations have similar frequencies to those used by whales. We found that whales are trying to adapt either by emitting much louder noised or by calling at a higher frequency. It's like they've turned from bass into a tenor.
These whale songs, capable of traveling hundreds of miles through the ocean, are thought to play an important role in finding a mate. As this exchange becomes more difficult due to louder oceans, it could spell trouble for whale breeding -- it's hard to meet a decent mate as it is, nowadays.

But it's not just the volume or pitch of the whale's communication that's being affected -- the messages themselves are becoming less elaborate and repeated more often -- "like a human forced to shout," says Tyack. "It also means they spend more energy on communicating."

And if all that wasn't concerning enough already, just imagine the embarrassment whales must feel when they learn that they've been calling their new partner by the wrong name, like, all night.

Photographic Evidence Proves That Squid Can Fly by Stephen Messenger, Porto Alegre, Brazil

Photo: Bob and Deb Hulse

Once, while boating off the coast of Jamaica in 2001, marine biologist Silvia Maciá and her husband caught a glimpse of an oddly familiar creature leaping from the waves, soaring with ease over the surface of the ocean. As the animal propelled itself for some 30 feet, Maciá realized she was witnessing the most unusual sight -- a flying squid. So intrigued by what she saw that day, Maciá would go on to co-author a paper examining similar observations, though essential photographic evidence of the incredible phenomenon remained elusive. That is, until now.

Maciá's study, featured in a 2004 issue of the Journal of Molluscan Studies, found that the gliding behavior of her squid wasn't entirely uncommon, noting around six species known to leap from the water -- occasionally winding up on the decks of boats. But from she witnessed that day near Jamaica, squids weren't just exiting the water aimlessly. Rather, they appeared to be flying.

"From our observations it seemed like squid engaged in behaviors to prolong their flight," she said. "One of our co-authors saw them actually flapping their fins. Some people have seen them jetting water while in flight. We felt that 'flight' is more appropriate because it implies something active."

But unfortunately such eyewitness accounts were all that the scientific community had to go on. Soon, however, that would change.

According to Ferris Jabr, who wrote of the mystery surrounding flying squid in a piece for Scientific American, undeniable proof of the cephalopod's airborne antics surfaced just recently. From the deck of a cruise ship along the coast of Brazil, a retiree named Bob Hulse snapped some high-resolution photographs of something unusual leaping from the sea: what appears to be dozens of squid propelling themselves through the air -- quite possibly the first time the impressive display has been caught on film.

Days left to stop mass extinction

A third of all animals and plants on earth face extinction -- endangered blue whales, coral reefs, and a vast array of other species. The wave of human-driven extinction has reached a rate not seen since the fall of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

But there is a plan to save them -- a global agreement to create, fund and enforce protected areas covering 20% of our seas and lands by 2020. Right now, 193 governments are meeting in Japan to address this crisis. But without public pressure, they are likely to fall short of the bold action needed to avert the collapse of ecosystems the world over.

This summit ends on Friday, October 29 -- we have no time to lose. Let's rapidly build a global public outcry urging governments to save all life on earth from runaway decline. Sign the petition below and it will be delivered directly to the meeting:

More links :

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/the_end_of_whales/?fp

http://www.facebook.com/pages/the-surfers-call/463623690306


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Natashia Fox