Noise pollution turning blue whales deaf

Miss-Delectable

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The world largest animal, the blue whale is slowly turning deaf due to increasing noise pollution in the ocean waters by humans, according to a new research.

The blue whales are suffering from hearing loss, they are being forced to increase their 'singing' to cope with noise pollution and where displaying behavioural changes due to man-made noise, scientists found.

The endangered blue whale uses sonar to navigate, locate prey, avoid predators and communicate. The increasing use of hi-tech sonar by ships, the noise of propellers, seismic surveys, sea-floor drilling, and low-frequency radio transmissions have made oceans noisier and is interfering with whales communication signals, according to a Daily Telegraph report.

Zoologist Lucia Di Iorio, of the University of Zurich, analysed the song of blue whales through microphones in the St Lawrence estuary off Canada's north east coast over an eleven day period in August 2004.
 
That's shame... It might be difficult for them to communication/sing each other. :(
 
Looks like Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is coming true! :Ohno:
 
Umm... whale? deaf? They don't have ear and not able to hear under the water but the vibrate thru body.
 
Every therapod has ears, even snakes. One of my friends got a whale bulla (ear bone) he found on the beach here in James Bay.

Snake DO NOT have ear, feel the vibrate from body.
 
Snake DO NOT have ear, feel the vibrate from body.

They don't have an outer ear, but they do have an inner ear attached to their jaw. The function of any ear is to pick vibrations. A snake can pick up anywhere from 500Hz to 1000Hz from 100Hz depending on the species. We can pick up upward to about 20000Hz ranging from about 20Hz to 50Hz. The difference between reptiles and humans is that the quadrate bone got shifted and became the incus. It just that the ear bones used to pick vibrations in amphibians and reptiles has evolved to pick up a larger range of frequency in mammals. Not too sure about birds... or any archosaurs (birds, dinosaurs, crocodiles.)

That's all an ear does-- pick up vibrations.

And should had said tetrapods... My mistake.
 
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Ugh, damn navy and their high tech sonar....:( Seems overcrowding causes more noise in the ocean.
 
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