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European Coalition for
Silent Oceans
(Europe, Middle East,
Africa)
contact: Sigrid
Lüber
tel. + 41 44
780-66-88
ECSO
Website
North American
Ocean
Noise Coalition
contact: Dr.
Marsha Green
tel. + 1 610
670-7386
NAONC
Website
South
American
Ocean Noise
Coalition
contact: Elsa
Cabrera
SAONC
Website
Mexico/Central
American Ocean Noise Coalition
contacts:
Dr. Yolanda
Alaniz
Laura Rojas
Ortega
Pacific Islands Ocean
Noise Coalition
contact: Susan
Millward
tel. +1 202
337-2332
IONC
Partners |
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The International Ocean Noise
Coalition (IONC) is a partnership
of over 150 non-governmental organizations
(NGOs) from around the world.
With representatives on every
continent, IONC was created to address the need
for a global approach to combating
human-generated (or "anthropogenic") ocean
noise.
Sources of underwater noise
include intense active mid-range and low
frequency sonar, ship traffic, use of
explosives, underwater construction, offshore
oil drilling, and seismic testing for oil and
other related activities.
Anthropogenic noise levels in the
marine environment are increasing at an
alarming rate. Ocean noise levels in some
areas have doubled every decade for the past 60
years.
There is mounting concern that
noise proliferation poses a significant threat
to the survival of marine mammals, fish and
other ocean wildlife.
Marine animals use sound to
navigate, find food, locate mates, avoid
predators and communicate with each
other. Flooding their world with intense
sound interferes with these activities with
serious consequences.
A growing body of scientific
research confirms anthropogenic noise can
induce a range of adverse effects in marine
mammals and other ocean creatures, from
disturbance to injury and death.
To find out more information
about ocean noise, click on the links
below.
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Regional Ocean Noise
Issues
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IONC partner the
Hawaii Ocean Noise
Coalition was formed in Spring 2007 to
unite Hawaiians with a shared interest in
ocean noise. Hawaii has a large U.S.
naval presence and is the site of RIMPAC - the
largest war game exercises in the world which
are held biannually in Hawaiian waters.
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The US National
Marine Fisheries Service Report on the 2004 Mass Stranding
of Melon-Headed Whales in Hawai'i was
released on April 27, 2006. The Report
stated that sonar was the "plausible, if not
likely, contributing factor" in the causation
of the incident in which 150-200 of the whales
'milled' in an unusual manner in the shallows
of Hanalei Bay, Kaua'i island.
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The US National
Marine Fisheries Service Report and US Navy Joint
Interim Report Bahamas Marine Mammal Stranding
Event of 15-16 March 2000 found the
animals had experienced some sort of acoustic
or impulse trauma that led to their stranding
and subsequent death and that the acoustic
trauma was most likely as a direct result of
exposure to tactical mid-range frequency sonars
aboard U.S. Navy ships that were in use prior
to the strandings.
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Navy Planned
Undersea Warfare Training Range to be located
off the coast of North Carolina will be an
active mid-frequency sonar training
range. Covering over 500 square miles,
the range will be used up to 161 times a year
for up to six hours at a time. The
purpose of the range is to train personnel on
the use of active sonar to find, track and
pursue submarines in the littoral (shallow)
zone. More
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US Navy SURTASS Low
Frequency Active Sonar use is currently
confined to an area of the western Pacific
Ocean established through a District Court
Preliminary Injunction (November 2002).
The area of operation has been expanded twice
through Mediation Conference, most recently in
August 2008. In November 2005, the Navy
published its draft Supplemental Environmental
Impact Statement detailing its proposal to
double the number of SURTASS LFA sonar systems
and to expand the area of operation to global
oceanic basins including the Pacific, Atlantic,
and Indian oceans, and the Mediterranean Sea.
More
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