Inuit warn ‘rock concert’ of noise from ships is hurting Arctic wildlife
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News Clipping
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Publication Year
2023
Publisher
National Observer, Canada
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Abstract
For centuries, narwhals and ringed seals have provided food for Inuit communities on the ice floes of Mittimatalik, or Pond Inlet, on Baffin Island in northern Canada. But now, the Inuit — who have hunted, trapped and fished in the region since long before the Hudson Bay Company opened its first Arctic trading camp here in 1921 — say they no longer find the narwhals where they should be. They say shipping noise is to blame.
Researchers have likened the passing of a single ice-breaker, increasingly present in the Arctic, to an underwater rock concert. Ship noise can be caused by everything from propellers to hull form to onboard machinery. It can disrupt activities that marine mammals need to survive by shrinking their communication space, causing stress and displacing them from important habitats.
Underwater noise from increasing ship traffic has doubled in intensity in the Arctic over the past six years and is expected to at least double again over the next decade, as the ice melts and new shipping routes open due to the climate crisis.
“The Inuit community on Mittimatalik has observed an increase in shipping and shipping noise, and harvesters are not seeing narwhals in their usual spots,” said Lisa Koperqualuk, president of the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC). “They have to go further away to hunt them, which carries risks, costs more in fuel and affects the transfer of cultural knowledge.”
Recently, the ICC, a body representing 180,000 Inuit in Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Chukotka in Russia, has urged the UN International Maritime Organization (IMO) to adopt mandatory measures to reduce underwater shipping noise, which they fear is affecting marine mammals...
Researchers have likened the passing of a single ice-breaker, increasingly present in the Arctic, to an underwater rock concert. Ship noise can be caused by everything from propellers to hull form to onboard machinery. It can disrupt activities that marine mammals need to survive by shrinking their communication space, causing stress and displacing them from important habitats.
Underwater noise from increasing ship traffic has doubled in intensity in the Arctic over the past six years and is expected to at least double again over the next decade, as the ice melts and new shipping routes open due to the climate crisis.
“The Inuit community on Mittimatalik has observed an increase in shipping and shipping noise, and harvesters are not seeing narwhals in their usual spots,” said Lisa Koperqualuk, president of the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC). “They have to go further away to hunt them, which carries risks, costs more in fuel and affects the transfer of cultural knowledge.”
Recently, the ICC, a body representing 180,000 Inuit in Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Chukotka in Russia, has urged the UN International Maritime Organization (IMO) to adopt mandatory measures to reduce underwater shipping noise, which they fear is affecting marine mammals...
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https://www.nationalobserver.com/2023/02/10/news/inuit-warn-rock-concert-noise-ships-hurting-arctic-wildlife
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