This week we reported on a study in New York Harbor, where Cornell scientists were listening to whales. They thought boat traffic and human noise might interrupt whale communication.
But for another enormous creature, it might be even worse.
The findings of a recent study revealed that low frequency sounds can be severely detrimental, even deadly, to cephalopods like the giant squid. Researches and scientists have suspected this impact for some time, especially when they found numerous giant squid dead off the coast of Spain a decade ago. They just couldn't put their finger on the cause.
Researchers first began putting two and two together in the early 2000s, when squid remains were found on the coast off Asturias in Spain after ships were conducting low-frequency sound-pulse exercises.
Apparently, the sound damages the mantles in the squid, organs that help the animal maintain balance and know its relative position. Researchers exposed 87 invertebrates, including squid and octopus, to different sound frequencies. When scientists killed and dissected them, they found extensive tissue damage.
Authors of the study say they need more evidence before they can claim that sound has any substantial detrimental impact on squid, but say the evidence is certainly growing.
-Rick Bach
