Canada Launching New Noise Pollution Research
July 20, 2018

Source: Government of Canada launching Oceans Protection Plan initiative to study and manage marine ecological stressors that impact marine mammals - DFO Press Release

The Canadian government has announced 26.6 million in funding from the Oceans Protection Plan for research to help humans better understand noise pressures on marine mammals including the North Atlantic right whale. As these areas off the coast are unfortunately getting more use from humans, the risk of harm to marine mammals rises so research like this is crucial. While we support larger, complete bans on certain activities in these waters such as fishing and oil exploration, we understand that research like this can help us develop ways to at least have some protections for marine mammals by possibly lowering the volume or changing the types of sounds people put into these environments. It also has the potential to inform us of the key places that marine mammals are using so that even if only small areas can be protected in the short term that those areas are the absolute most important ones to marine life. The DFO press release contains a lot of great information, along with exactly where some of the money is going, and we encourage everyone to check it out.