California Coast & Ocean

The Best Hope
California has more regulatory authority over activities within its coastal waters than many other states do, thanks to the California Coastal Act of 1976 and the Coastal Commission, which works with state and local governments to oversee planning, development, and access along the coastline. Underwater noise--particularly in the low frequencies--is one of the factors the Commission considers when reviewing permit applications, according to Commissioner Sara Wan.

In March 2007, the Commission filed suit against the Navy for rejecting safeguards it requested for protecting marine mammals during sonar testing off the coast. In January 2008, President Bush issued a directive exempting Navy sonar training missions from the Coastal Zone Management Act and other environmental regulations; in February, a federal judge ruled against the administration.

In April 2007, the Commission rejected plans for a new offshore liquid natural gas facility in part because of noise that would be generated by construction and vessel traffic. Noise may be an issue in proposed future uses of nearshore waters, such as wave energy facilities. However, the Commission has no authority over ongoing shipping noise, Wan said. It can only restrict noise related to specific incidences such as testing and exploration, or to new facilities.

Some conservationists see California’s new network of marine protected areas (MPAs), which went into effect on September 21, 2007, as a potential vehicle for protecting marine animals from noise and other harmful activities. As currently constituted, the MPAs restrict only activities such as fishing and harvesting of other resources, but it is conceivable that they could adopt vessel traffic and speed restrictions, with the approval of the IMO.

The best hope for reducing the harm to animals from ocean noise is likely to involve a combination of tools--including ship-quieting technologies, speed restrictions, exclusionary zones and seasonal restrictions, and changes to shipping lanes--and a variety of people to enact them, from shipbuilders and -owners to marine reserve managers and agency staff. But the time to start thinking about how to approach noise concerns in our activities in the ocean is now.

“Overall, overfishing, bycatch, and global warming are probably having significantly greater impacts on marine populations than underwater sound,” Southall said. “Animals can do things to get around noise. But there’s a limit to what they can do--these are acoustic animals. It’s the primary sense that they use, and to the extent that you affect that, you affect their ability to reproduce and survive. As consumers, we all ultimately contribute to shipping noise. We owe it to these animals to see if we can find solutions.”