Do not disturb (Image: Sylvain Cordier/Getty)

At last, whales and dolphins might enjoy some peace and quiet. Shipping companies the world over will soon have voluntary guidelines that will, for the first time, require them to make less noise at sea.

Ships have made the oceans a much louder environment, and that is bad news for the animals that live in them. The noise seems to stress whales and is linked to mass dolphin strandings. It also pulps the balancing organs of squid, octopuses and cuttlefish. As a result, scientists and conservationists have been demanding some quiet time.

The new guidelines are the work of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in London, the UN agency that regulates the shipping industry, and will be finalised in the next fortnight.


“This is a milestone,” says Michael Jasny, of the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental campaigning organisation in Washington DC. “We’re aiming to reverse a truly global form of pollution.”

Although the guidelines are voluntary, they can be made mandatory by individual IMO member states. Conservation groups will monitor and shame shipping companies that do not take action, says Jasny.

Not far-reaching enough

Other conservation groups said the measures will be ignored unless compulsory. “Also, they don’t address noise from naval vessels and warships, or from other operations such as sonar,” says Nicola Hodgins of Whale and Dolphin Conservation in Plymouth, Massachusetts. “These guidelines don’t go far enough.”

The guidelines include recommendations to make shipping quieter, especially targeted at propellers as they make the most noise. “The focus is on reducing propeller cavitation, the creation and destruction of tiny bubbles that create a real roar in the water,” says Jasny. “The guidance recommends measuring and minimising the noise in newly built ships and reducing it in existing ones.”

Avoiding noise also avoids wasting energy, so helps companies save fuel. “It makes compliance a win-win situation for whales and shippers,” says Jasny.