20,000 Sounds Under the Sea

The Acoustic pollution is an environmental factor produced by excessive noise, is very characteristic of human activities in large cities and is capable of causing serious physiological and psychological damage to people.

As the human being expands the zones of his activities, he is taking this problem with him, as it is happening in the case of the oceans, where the harmful effects that are product of the noises of the ships, submarines transport and the oil exploitation are increasingly noticeable on different marine species.

Many marine animals take advantage of the physical properties of water to transmit sounds as a means of communicating, orienting and mating, all these activities are disturbed by the introduction of aliens noise to their environment.

One of the animals most affected by this problem are the whales, which when these disturbances become constant are forced to change their habitat, in addition the sounds produced by the engines and generators of the large ships, cause confusion in their communication system and orientation, which often leads them to collide against these boats, this being one of the main causes of death.

With the aim of contributing to a greater awareness of this problem, the Laboratory of Bioacustic Applications of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, created the project 20,000 Sounds Under the Sea.

This project, directed by the Spanish researcher Michel André, takes place aboard the Fleur de Passion boat, an old war ship, transformed into a sailboat that is traveling all around to the world, following the Magallanes route, since 2016 and aims to culminate in 2019

The Fleur de Passion has a system of hydrophones that detect and classify all the sounds of the sea, all around the world. This is an innovative device that integrates the internet technology, which allows to send in real time the sounds and images captured by the submarines cameras installed in the hydrophones to the laboratory, where it maps the affectation of the acoustic contamination in the oceans.

The project 20,000 sounds under the sea, has taken samples of sounds in different parts of the world, these are being analyzed and compared with the health status of coral reefs and marine fauna, which have been affected by this pollution, waiting that with this will help to understand the magnitude of these damages and motivate the entities involved, so that the necessary measures are taken for the conservation of marine species at risk of extinction, such as the acquisition of low noise technology in the different activities that are made in this ecosystem.

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