鲸鱼正享受着新发现的寂静

鲸鱼正享受着新发现的寂静

With so many cities in lockdown during the coronavirus pandemic, the world has become a quieter place. There are fewer people on the streets, fewer cars on the roads and less activity everywhere. In some places, animals are flourishing as they tentatively explore a calmer planet.

在冠状病毒大流行期间，许多城市被封锁，世界变得更加安静。街上的人少了，路上的车少了，到处活动也少了。在一些地方，动物们在探索一个更平静的星球的过程中茁壮成长。

Underwater noise pollution has an effect on whale communication and navigation. (Photo: Nathan Mortimer/Shutterstock)

This silence extends to the oceans.

这种寂静一直延伸到海洋。

Normally, oceans are noisy. There's the din of cargo shipping and energy exploration in the oceans, while lakes endure the constant sounds of recreational boating. Loud above the surface, these noises also permeate underwater, disturbing the environment for the animals that live there. Many of these animals use sound to dodge predators, find mates and locate prey, so when their underwater world is noisy, they can't communicate or hear as well, and it becomes more difficult to navigate.

正常情况下，海洋是嘈杂的。海洋中充斥着货物运输和能源勘探的喧嚣，而湖泊中则充斥着划船的声音。在水面上的噪音也会渗透到水下，扰乱了生活在那里的动物的环境。这些动物中有许多利用声音来躲避捕食者、寻找配偶和定位猎物，因此当它们的水下世界嘈杂时，它们就无法交流或倾听，导航也变得更加困难。

But with so much activity halted in and on the water, the oceans have experienced a drop in noise pollution.

但由于如此多的活动在水中和水面上停止，海洋的噪音污染有所减少。

With a slowdown of cargo shipping due to the pandemic, there's been a drop in low-frequency sounds off Vancouver. (Photo: Perthsnap/Shutterstock)

This isn't the first time researchers have studied the magnitude of a starkly quiet world and its impact on whales.

这并不是研究人员第一次研究完全安静的世界的大小及其对鲸鱼的影响。

On the morning after Sept. 11, 2001, researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Falmouth, Massachusetts, set out to collect data on the behavior of North Atlantic right whales as they had done many times in the past. But this time, people and goods had stopped moving overnight and the world had become eerily still after the terrorist attacks.

2001年9月11日上午，马萨诸塞州法尔茅斯的伍兹霍尔海洋研究所的研究人员开始收集北大西洋露脊鲸的行为数据，就像他们过去做过的很多次那样。但这一次，人和货物在一夜之间停止了流动，世界在恐怖袭击后变得死气沉沉。

The researchers were able to study the whales in a quiet ocean. They published their findings in a study that concluded ship noise was associated with stress in right whales.

研究人员能够在安静的海洋中研究鲸鱼。他们在一项研究中发表了他们的发现，该研究的结论是船只噪音与露脊鲸的压力有关。

"That paper is pretty beautiful evidence that industrial noise does have a stress impact on marine animals," Barclay says.

“这篇论文是很好的证据，证明工业噪音确实对海洋动物有压力影响，”巴克莱说。

Now, nearly two decades later, scientists are listening again to a quiet underwater world. They're learning how silence helps marine life better communicate and navigate their habitat.

如今，近20年过去了，科学家们再次听到了一个安静的水下世界的声音。它们正在学习寂静的环境如何帮助海洋生物更好地交流和导航它们的栖息地。

But they also question what will happen when things return to some semblance of normal.

但他们也质疑，当事情恢复到某种表面上的正常时，会发生什么。

"One of the critical questions we're facing, environmentally, is what kind of world we go back to once this catastrophe has passed," Michael Jasny, a marine mammal expert at the U.S. Natural Resources Defense Council, tells the Narwhal. "Do we rebuild the economy along the same, unsustainable and destructive lines as we have previously, or do we take the opportunity to build a greener economy and a more sustainable world?"

美国自然资源保护委员会的海洋哺乳动物专家迈克尔·贾斯尼在接受《独角鲸》采访时表示:“环境方面，我们面临的一个关键问题是，一旦这场灾难过去，我们将回到一个什么样的世界。”他说:“我们是继续按照过去那种不可持续、具有破坏性的路线重建经济，还是抓住机会建设一个更加绿色的经济和一个更加可持续的世界?”