How Our Consumer Culture Is Killing the Whales Emily J. Gertz - TakePart
go to original June 26, 2016

Sonic Sea — Trailer (NRDCflix)

What sight is to most people, sound is to marine mammals - the sense they rely on most to perceive their surroundings and thrive in an underwater world. Near the beginning of Sonic Sea, a documentary film aired on the Discovery Channel, a scientist describes his awe on discovering the richness of this aural world; he recounts the first time he dropped a microphone into the Arctic Ocean, through a hole in the sea ice.

“Bearded seals coming out of the ether, as though they were from The Martian Chronicles. Beluga whales chirping and chattering and clicking,” says Chris Clark, a bioacoustics expert at Cornell University. “And then the bowhead whales: roaring, low-frequency moans, and it was like, ‘Oh, my God, this is fantastic!’ ”

But this undersea soundscape is being destroyed by humans. “We are basically acoustically bleaching the ocean,” says Clark in Sonic Sea. The movie features footage of wild whales interspersed with expert interviews and artful animation, all tied together by actor Rachel McAdams’ calm but urgent narration, to make a compelling case for quieting the din.

Sonic Sea explores the ecology, intelligence, and sensitive hearing of whales, along with the three main sources of the clamor that threatens to deafen them: naval sonar, offshore oil and gas development, and commercial shipping.

Read the rest at TakePart

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