The impact of continuous, high-intensity noise in the oceans could be considerable.
The rising tumult in the oceans caused by human activity may be causing devastating damage to giant squid and sea life in general.
Research by Rolex Laureate Michel André has found that squid and octopus suffer trauma in their acoustic organs similar to that discovered in land mammals exposed to loud, low-frequency sounds.
Professor André, of the Technical University of Catalonia, received his Rolex Award for Enterprise in 2002 for pioneering a system to prevent collisions between ships and whales.
The researchers, who exposed 87 individual cephalopods – including squid, cuttlefish and octopus – to short sweeps of low intensity sound, found, for example, that the fluid-filled organs which enable squid to maintain balance and position displayed signs of damage. Over time, the nerves in these organs swelled and large holes appeared in the organs’ walls. Although squid probably do not “hear” in the conventional sense, these organs fulfil a vital balance role similar to the human vestibular system.
André says this is the first evidence that manmade noise may be causing havoc even in ocean life which is not sound-dependent. “If the relatively low-intensity, short exposure used in our study can cause such severe acoustic trauma, then the impact of continuous, high-intensity noise in the oceans could be considerable,” Prof. André says, adding that noise-induced damage “would likely affect the cephalopod’s ability to hunt, evade predators and even reproduce; in other words, this would not be compatible with life”.
The findings have prompted him to pose the question: “Is noise pollution capable of impacting the entire web of ocean life?”
The results of the research by Michel André and his colleagues have been made public in the latest issue of Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, a leading environmental science magazine published by the Ecological Society of America.
Julian Cribb
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