Underwater noise from shipping, sonar, and construction is increasingly recognized as a significant stressor for marine animals that rely on sound for navigation, communication, and hunting.
Marine noise pollution is a welfare issue that scales from chronic stress to acute mortality. Beaked whales have died in strandings directly linked to military sonar exercises. More broadly, noise from shipping and construction elevates baseline stress in cetaceans, disrupts feeding and reproduction, and prevents mother-calf acoustic bonding. Unlike many environmental harms, ocean noise pollution can be meaningfully reduced through vessel speed limits, quieter propeller designs, and sonar use restrictions.