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Dolphins Simplify Calls in Order to be Heard Over Noise Caused by Human Activities

posted by mrpg on Wednesday October 31 2018, @10:00AM   Printer-friendly
from the keep-doing-this-humans-and-we'll-leave-sooner dept.

takyon writes:

Dolphins Are Simplifying Their Calls to Be Heard Over Shipping Noise

The world's oceans are getting noisier, humming with the near-constant sounds of ship engines, seafloor mining, and oil and gas exploration. Now, a new study [open, DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2018.0484] [DX] published in the journal Biology Letters has found that dolphins are being forced to simplify their calls in order to be heard over the noise.

A team of researchers, led by marine biologists Helen Bailey and Leila Fouda from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, analyzed some 200 recordings of bottlenose dolphin calls collected over a three-month period in the North Atlantic using underwater microphones. They found that in noisy parts of the ocean, dolphins communicated using less-complex, higher-frequency whistles than in quieter areas.

"It's kind of like trying to answer a question in a noisy bar and after repeated attempts to be heard, you just give the shortest answer possible," Bailey said. "Dolphins simplified their calls to counter the masking effects of vessel noise."

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 31 2018, @11:51AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 31 2018, @11:51AM (#755981)

    We can now start to learn to translate them. Remember it takes about 800 words to function in an English based society. Just maybe we are finally getting their "800 words"?

    This may lead to better language translation over all. Everyone must use phones that put out 120db noise so we all slow down and use clear small words to be heard.

  • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday October 31 2018, @04:28PM

    by bob_super (1357) on Wednesday October 31 2018, @04:28PM (#756052)

    50% of translated calls read as "humans, get off my kelp"
    10% are about food and playing
    40% are variations on "I know you got a headache, but I can't stop the darn noise, can't you make an effort?"

  • (Score: 2) by krishnoid on Wednesday October 31 2018, @09:19PM

    by krishnoid (1156) on Wednesday October 31 2018, @09:19PM (#756178)

    Everyone must use phones that put out 120db noise so we all slow down and use clear small words to be heard.

    Reminds me a little of this [archive.org], maybe?

    To be equitable, we should also set up dolphin libraries with maximum sound level requirements, where they'd be allowed to use their indoor voices.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 01 2018, @07:30PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 01 2018, @07:30PM (#756580)

    From Life, the Universe and Everything:

    He learned to communicate with birds and found that their speech was fantastically boring.