PARIS: Scientists warned on Tuesday (Feb 14) that controversial seabed mining could significantly threaten ocean ecosystems and especially affect blue whales and other cetaceans already stressed by shipping, pollution and climate change. A study in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science found that commerc
PARIS: Scientists warned on Tuesday that controversial seabed mining could significantly threaten ocean ecosystems and especially affect blue whales and other cetaceans already stressed by shipping, pollution and climate change.
"Cetaceans rely on sound for every aspect of their behaviour, such as foraging, breeding and navigation," Kirsten Thompson, the lead author of the study and a lecturer in marine mammal biology at the University of Exeter, told AFP.The report points to overlap between the frequencies at which cetaceans communicate and the sound that would be generated by drilling, dredging and the acoustic telemetry needed to remotely operate vehicles mining the seabed.
Other research has found that man-made noise increased the risk of separation between humpback whales and their calves, which communicate via quiet vocalisations. Thompson also pointed to knowledge gaps in the distribution of marine mammal species, mainly due to the high cost of biological surveys across vast expanses of ocean.
The tiny island nation of Nauru, in particular, sees deep-sea mining as a potentially lucrative income stream for climate adaptation in the face of sea level rise and increasingly powerful storms.
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