We think of the sea as a sanctuary, a place where we can relax, a place of peace, a place in fact that has inspired composers and musicians for millenia. However, we humans are generating a barrage of inescapable noise that is filling our ocean and deeply impacting everything within it. Undersea drilling, seismic testing, increasing shipping traffic, and dynamite fishing are just some of the ways we are doing this.
A great many creatures in the ocean rely on using sound, for many it’s a huge part of everything they do. Acoustics play a critical part in their ability to feed, socialise, communicate, and mate - and for some species human-made sounds can kill them.
At our events, festivals and education we highlight the issue and showcase solutions. Because with sound, when you turn it off it goes away.
We use the power the ocean and its charismatic animals have over the human imagination to inspire the public: to use art to amplify science as the way to communicate when other methods might not be heard.