鯨魚正享受著新發(fā)現(xiàn)的寂靜

鯨魚正享受著新發(fā)現(xiàn)的寂靜

With so many cities in lockdown during the coronavirus pandemic, the world has become a quieter place. There are fewer people on the streets, fewer cars on the roads and less activity everywhere. In some places, animals are flourishing as they tentatively explore a calmer planet.

在冠狀病毒大流行期間，許多城市被封鎖，世界變得更加安靜。街上的人少了，路上的車少了，到處活動也少了。在一些地方，動物們在探索一個更平靜的星球的過程中茁壯成長。

Underwater noise pollution has an effect on whale communication and navigation. (Photo: Nathan Mortimer/Shutterstock)

This silence extends to the oceans.

這種寂靜一直延伸到海洋。

Normally, oceans are noisy. There's the din of cargo shipping and energy exploration in the oceans, while lakes endure the constant sounds of recreational boating. Loud above the surface, these noises also permeate underwater, disturbing the environment for the animals that live there. Many of these animals use sound to dodge predators, find mates and locate prey, so when their underwater world is noisy, they can't communicate or hear as well, and it becomes more difficult to navigate.

正常情況下，海洋是嘈雜的。海洋中充斥著貨物運輸和能源勘探的喧囂，而湖泊中則充斥著劃船的聲音。在水面上的噪音也會滲透到水下，擾亂了生活在那里的動物的環(huán)境。這些動物中有許多利用聲音來躲避捕食者、尋找配偶和定位獵物，因此當(dāng)它們的水下世界嘈雜時，它們就無法交流或傾聽，導(dǎo)航也變得更加困難。

But with so much activity halted in and on the water, the oceans have experienced a drop in noise pollution.

但由于如此多的活動在水中和水面上停止，海洋的噪音污染有所減少。

With a slowdown of cargo shipping due to the pandemic, there's been a drop in low-frequency sounds off Vancouver. (Photo: Perthsnap/Shutterstock)

This isn't the first time researchers have studied the magnitude of a starkly quiet world and its impact on whales.

這并不是研究人員第一次研究完全安靜的世界的大小及其對鯨魚的影響。

On the morning after Sept. 11, 2001, researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Falmouth, Massachusetts, set out to collect data on the behavior of North Atlantic right whales as they had done many times in the past. But this time, people and goods had stopped moving overnight and the world had become eerily still after the terrorist attacks.

2001年9月11日上午，馬薩諸塞州法爾茅斯的伍茲霍爾海洋研究所的研究人員開始收集北大西洋露脊鯨的行為數(shù)據(jù)，就像他們過去做過的很多次那樣。但這一次，人和貨物在一夜之間停止了流動，世界在恐怖襲擊后變得死氣沉沉。

The researchers were able to study the whales in a quiet ocean. They published their findings in a study that concluded ship noise was associated with stress in right whales.

研究人員能夠在安靜的海洋中研究鯨魚。他們在一項研究中發(fā)表了他們的發(fā)現(xiàn)，該研究的結(jié)論是船只噪音與露脊鯨的壓力有關(guān)。

"That paper is pretty beautiful evidence that industrial noise does have a stress impact on marine animals," Barclay says.

“這篇論文是很好的證據(jù)，證明工業(yè)噪音確實對海洋動物有壓力影響，”巴克萊說。

Now, nearly two decades later, scientists are listening again to a quiet underwater world. They're learning how silence helps marine life better communicate and navigate their habitat.

如今，近20年過去了，科學(xué)家們再次聽到了一個安靜的水下世界的聲音。它們正在學(xué)習(xí)寂靜的環(huán)境如何幫助海洋生物更好地交流和導(dǎo)航它們的棲息地。

But they also question what will happen when things return to some semblance of normal.

但他們也質(zhì)疑，當(dāng)事情恢復(fù)到某種表面上的正常時，會發(fā)生什么。

"One of the critical questions we're facing, environmentally, is what kind of world we go back to once this catastrophe has passed," Michael Jasny, a marine mammal expert at the U.S. Natural Resources Defense Council, tells the Narwhal. "Do we rebuild the economy along the same, unsustainable and destructive lines as we have previously, or do we take the opportunity to build a greener economy and a more sustainable world?"

美國自然資源保護(hù)委員會的海洋哺乳動物專家邁克爾·賈斯尼在接受《獨角鯨》采訪時表示:“環(huán)境方面，我們面臨的一個關(guān)鍵問題是，一旦這場災(zāi)難過去，我們將回到一個什么樣的世界。”他說:“我們是繼續(xù)按照過去那種不可持續(xù)、具有破壞性的路線重建經(jīng)濟(jì)，還是抓住機(jī)會建設(shè)一個更加綠色的經(jīng)濟(jì)和一個更加可持續(xù)的世界?”