Since the industrial revolution, human noise pollution in the world has increased greatly.
The noise confuses animals and not even sea-dwelling species escape.
- The noise can come from cargo ships and tourist boats.
Piling of oil platforms and wind turbines in the seas also disturbs, says Pernille Sørensen, who is a behavioral biologist at the University of Bristol.
The scientists' dolphin race
Previous studies show that animals try to drown out disturbing sounds.
Pernille and her colleagues wanted to see if it works, or if the animals misunderstand each other.
They had an experiment carried out in Florida to see how the dolphins Delta and Reese cooperate with noise in the background.
Together, the two dolphins would solve a task.
It required them to be able to hear each other from different sides of a pool.
A speaker was placed in the middle of the pool, between the dolphins.
Gradually increasing the volume of the noise in the underwater speaker, the dolphins were allowed to do the experiment 200 times.
It got harder and harder and the dolphins raised their voices.
They called out to each other longer and communicated with more body language.
- Even if the dolphins tried to compensate, it was not enough, because they were less successful when it sounded a lot.
Without noise, they succeeded in 85 percent of the cases.
When it sounded like the worst, only about 60 percent of the attempts were successful, says the behavioral biologist.
Time to take responsibility
- We should be concerned about how the noise we create affects the animals and their everyday life.
In order to mate and find food, they must be able to communicate.
We are the source of the noise and therefore we should take responsibility for finding solutions that do not disturb life below the surface, says Pernille Sørensen.
Play the video above to see how the experiment went.