Noise pollution knocks squid, octopi off balance
Baku, April 12 (AZERTAC). Noise pollution in the ocean can confuse and even injure marine species such as dolphins and fish. Now, a new study finds that the same is true of squid and other cephalopods.
The research, published Monday in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, finds that even short exposures to low-intensity, low-frequency sound can wreak havoc on the balance systems of squid, cuttlefish and octopi. The findings are a cause for concern, the researchers write, because shipping, commercial fishing and offshore operations such as oil-drilling are on the rise. All of these activities produce the kind of deep, low-frequency sounds now shown to injure cephalopods.
"If the relatively low intensity, short exposure used in our study can cause such severe acoustic trauma, then the impact of continuous, high-intensity noise pollution in the oceans could be considerable," study researcher Michel Andre of the Technical University of Catalonia in Barcelona said in a statement.
Most research on noise pollution has focused on dolphins and whales, which have been found to shout over the racket of noisy waters. But in separate incidents in 2001 and 2003, strandings of giant squid shot up along the west coast of Spain. The strandings coincided with nearby ocean seismic surveys, which use air guns to send high-intensity, low-frequency bursts of sound through the ocean in order to image the subsurface of the ocean floor, usually for petroleum prospecting.
The stranded squid had various injuries, but all shared one common feature: damage to their statocysts. These organs are small, balloonlike sacs lined with sensitive hair cells. Much like the human vestibular system, the statocysts are responsible for detecting the squid`s position and maintaining its balance in the water.
Other news in this section
