Towards Minimizing Underwater Noise from Ships- Juniper Publishers
Juniper Publishers - Journal of Oceanography Review Underwater noise from commercial ships has historically been less of a concern until recently when its negative effect on the marine environment has become much obvious [ 1 ]. The eye- opening international event happened in 1996. The Alliance, an oceanographic research vessel operated by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), was conducting experiments with the new sonar off the coast of Greece. Several hours after the experiments, 17 beaked whales stranded in the Kyparissiakos Gulf and subsequently died [ 2 ]. In the middle of the ongoing debate over SURTASS (Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System), the unusual mass stranding of cetaceans was discovered in the Bahamas islands in the spring of 2000 [ 3 ]. Similar accidents such as these triggered a considerable concern on the detrimental impact of man-made underwater noise on marine life, such as marine mammals and fish (for a short review on anthr...