Singing humpback whales respond to wind noise, but not to vessel noise.

Whales don’t sing louder over vessel noise

29 September 2023

Humpback whales sing louder to be heard over noise created by the wind, but they don’t do so in response to noise from shipping.

The oceans are becoming increasingly noisy due to noise generated by ships. This artificial source of noise can negatively impact marine species.

Male humpback whales are known to sing louder in response to noise generated by the wind, but it wasn’t known whether they do the same in response to noise produced by motor vessels.

Now, a team led by researchers from the University of Queensland in Australia has found that, even when noise from ships is dominant, humpback whales adjust the level of their singing only in response to wind noise.

This finding will be important for informing the development of policies for limiting artificial noise sources at sea, the researchers say.

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References

1. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 290, (2023). doi: 10.1098/rspb.2023.0204