bbc.co.uk: By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News website

Scientists have turned up new evidence showing that ocean noise can affect the communication of whales.

Studying blue whales off the eastern Canadian coast, they found the animals changed their vocalisations in response to an underwater seismic survey. The survey was conducted using gear considered to have a low impact. Writing in the journal Biology Letters, the researchers say this is the first evidence that whales will increase calls in response to underwater noise. At this site, on a feeding ground, the whales make frequent calls of just a few seconds’ duration, rather than the long “songs” that can be heard across vast tracts of ocean.

“The calls are used for short-range communication within a range of a few hundred metres,” said Lucia Di Iorio, based at the University of Zurich in Switzerland. [ read more ]