Passing ships affect whales’ food hunt
Print Edition
NOISE from ships impedes humpback whales from foraging for food and could have long-term impacts on the health of these majestic creatures, according to a study released yesterday.
Shipping lanes overlapping with the coastal migratory paths of whales create a steady source of underwater noise pollution.
A team of scientists led by Hannah Blair of Syracuse University in New York attached non-intrusive sensors to 10 humpbacks in the western North Atlantic.
The devices not only picked up and recorded all the sounds heard by the whales, but also tracked their underwater movement.
Humpbacks have a wide array of foraging techniques used to consume a large number of small prey, including one manoeuvre scientists call the “bottom side-roll.”
To feed on sand lance, bottom-dwelling eel-like fish, “the whale dives and scrapes along the ocean floor,” explained Blair.
A humpback can deep-dive for up to 30 minutes.
“At the same time, it rolls regularly onto its side and opens its mouth, scooping up the fish hidden in the sand,” especially at night, she said.
The study found that half of the whales, all of them adult females, failed to execute these important side-rolls in the presence of ship noise on at least one of their deep dives.
The humpback may have perceived the ships as a threat. It is also possible, researchers said, that the prey reacted to the noise too, scattering or digging more deeply into the sand.
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