- UAE oil giant ADNOC swoops on German chemicals firm Covestro
- Eurozone inflation falls under 2% for first time since 2021
- Coldplay ticket scalping fiasco sparks backlash in India
- Droughts drive Spanish boom in pistachio farming
- Tokyo recovers some losses to lead Asian markets higher
- Rural schools empty in North Macedonia due to exodus
- US dockworkers launch strike after labor contract expires
- Thousands evacuated as Super Typhoon Krathon approaches Taiwan
- Kenya airport whistleblower fears for his life
- Sheinbaum to take office as Mexico's first woman president
- Scientists fear underfunded Argentina research on verge of collapse
- US port officials gird for strike despite last-minute bargaining
- With 118 dead from Hurricane Helene, Biden defends US government response
- Breeder who tried to create enormous trophy sheep jailed in US
- Qatar Airways seeking 25% stake in Virgin Australia
- US port officials gird for strike as labor talks stay stuck
- As toll crosses 100, Trump puts Hurricane Helene at election center stage
- US Fed Chair sees 'further disinflation' in economy
- Epic Games sues Google and Samsung over app store
- Officials see no shortages from likely US port strike
- UK families of Gaza hostages warn Lebanon attack 'takes focus away'
- Shares in Stellantis, Aston Martin skid on profit warnings
- Dali prints found in London garage sold at auction
- ECB chief backs bank mergers amid UniCredit, Commerzbank talk
- China stocks soar on stimulus, but US and Europe retreat
- 100 dead in storm Helene damage, flooding across US southeast
- China stocks soar on stimulus, Europe slides on automaker woes
- German antitrust watchdog steps up monitoring of Microsoft
- Nepal's urban poor count cost of 'nightmare' floods
- E.Guinea, Gabon clash at ICJ over oil-rich islands
- New blow for UK's Starmer as growth data disappoints
- China's top banks to tweak mortgage rates to boost housing market
- Muslim women break taboos navigating east London's waterways
- Nepal dam-building spree powers electric vehicle boom
- More than 60 dead from storm Helene as rescue, cleanup efforts grow
- Dozens missing, 9 dead in migrant boat wreck off Spanish Canaries
- Death toll from Hurricane John hits eight in Mexico
- Storm Helene's toll rises as rescue and cleanup efforts gain pace
- SpaceX launches mission to return stranded astronauts
- Storm Helene kills 44, threatens more 'catastrophic' flooding as cleanup begins
- SpaceX set to launch mission to return stranded astronauts
- Storm Helene kills 44, threatens more 'catastrophic' flooding
- Boeing strike grinds on as latest talks fail to reach agreement
- Iran 'news' sites, hackers target Trump ahead of US election
- US ports brace for potential dockworkers strike
- Japan's speedy, spotless Shinkansen bullet trains turn 60
- US hurricane deaths rise to 44, fears of more 'catastrophic' flooding
- Global stocks mostly rise, cheering Beijing stimulus
- Europe en route for Moon with new simulator, says astronaut Pesquet
- Fireworks forecast if comet survives risky Sun flypast
Whales 'cannot out-sing' human noise pollution
Baleen whales have evolved a special voice box to help them to sing underwater -- but this could also make them uniquely vulnerable to being drowned out by human noise pollution, according to new research published Wednesday.
Complex whale melodies, first recorded some 50 years ago, are known to play a key role in the social and reproductive communication of these massive marine mammals.
While toothed whales have a nasal vocal organ, filter-feeding baleen whales use a larynx, although scientists had not figured out exactly how it created the vocalisations.
In a new study published in the journal Nature, a team of scientists in Denmark, Austria, and the United States examined the larynxes of three stranded baleen whales -- the sei, minke, and humpback species -- using scanning and modelling techniques to reconstruct how they produce sound.
They found several differences from land mammals, including a U-shaped structure instead of vocal cords, that allows them to generate their low-frequency songs.
"We've never seen this in any other animal," lead author Coen Elemans, professor of bioacoustics at the University of Southern Denmark, told AFP.
"This is a completely novel adaptation, and we think this allowed these large whales to make sound in the water while basically holding their breath."
But the scientists also found a potentially serious challenge for the whales: the struggle to make themselves heard over noise pollution from ships.
- No escape -
Computer models showed that baleen whale songs can travel long distances through water, but at a maximum depth of 100 metres (330 feet) and at a frequency of up to 300 Hz -- within the range noise made by shipping vessels.
This means that whales in a noisy ocean soundscape are essentially trying to talk across a busy motorway or at a loud party: the further away you are, the less you'll be able to hear, Elemans said.
"It's really sad that baleen whale vocalisations exactly overlap with the sounds we make, predominantly with shipping noise, and there is no way for the whales to sing louder, at a higher frequency, or deeper in the water," Elemans said.
"These animals really can't escape this, and we really need to mitigate the noise we make."
They cannot even dive down to escape the din.
The deeper they go, the greater the pressure which reduces the volume of air available for vocalising, said Joy Reidenberg, a professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, who was not involved in the study.
Noise pollution can force whales to change their behaviour, such as remaining silent until quiet returns, moving to another location, or trying to communicate over the noise –- the latter two requiring whales to exert extra energy, potentially weakening their body condition and affecting long-term survival, Reidenberg said.
She said that understanding whale vocalisations could aid conservation efforts by helping understand which depths are "critical habitats".
This is particularly important at mating sites where, depending on the season, noise pollution can disrupt reproduction.
"We must be smarter about when and where we put sound into the water," Reidenberg said.
Researchers say there is an urgent need to regulate underwater noise.
The harm goes beyond whales -- there is evidence that scores of marine species are negatively affected by underwater noise pollution, Melanie Lancaster, senior Arctic species specialist at the World Wildlife Fund, who was not involved in the study, told AFP.
"We know the most about marine mammals, which is why they feature so prominently, yet the impacts are much farther reaching, essentially impacting entire marine ecosystems," she said.
P.Gonzales--CPN