Manmade noises can drown out the sounds that whales and other marine mammals rely on for life's most basic functions—from navigating to mating.

NRDC has fought for decades to protect marine mammals from the U.S. Navy's high-intensity sonar-training exercises, the seismic exploration of offshore oil and gas drilling, and the daily racket generated by commercial shipping. As a result, we’ve protected some of the most sensitive marine mammal habitat off the coasts of California and Alaska, in the Gulf of Mexico, and elsewhere. Now our efforts are focused on the problem’s cumulative effects.