Sounding the alarm: Scientists say noise pollution is affecting ocean health

"The ocean has to tell us a lot. It's not silent. It's very noisy, actually," Lucia Di Iorio, a researcher in bioacoustics at the University of Perpignan, tells us. 

A bioacoustician for over 15 years, Di Iorio has been capturing underwater soundscapes along Europe's coastlines as part of the international research projects, TREC and BIOcean5D. 

Off the coast of Brittany in France, along with her colleague Yann Fontana, Di Iorio deploys sound recording devices on the seabed to document the ambient sounds in the aquatic realm.

"Here we're listening mainly to seagrasses and kelp. They are nurseries — little fish and little larvae grow there. They protect from erosion, they produce oxygen, they stock carbon, and they have a lot of important roles in the ecosystems," Di Iorio explains. 

Using sound recordings along with genetic samplings, scientists aim to better understand these marine biodiversity hotspots. However, the natural underwater symphony of snapping shrimps, fish communication, and other bioacoustics is often drowned out by the constant hum of passing ships. 

"It's like as if you were living next to a highway, or a busy road, and cars were passing all the time — it's annoying! So it's annoying for us, but it's also annoying for the animals living in that environment," Di Iorio adds.

Scientists are becoming increasingly alarmed by the underwater noise pollution: it places additional stress on marine fauna, already threatened by numerous anthropogenic impacts. Mounting evidence suggests that noise pollution can affect a wide range of sea animals and even plants.

"We discovered that other species, namely invertebrates, which are cephalopods, crustaceans, jellyfish, coral reefs — thousands and thousands of species — were