For centuries, sea animals and ringed seals have provided food for Inuit communities on the ice floes of Mitimatalik, or Pond Inlet, on northern Canada’s Baffin Island. But now, the Inuit—who hunted, trapped, and fished in the area long before the Hudson’s Bay Company opened its first Arctic trading camp here in 1921—said they no longer find their rumen where they should be. They say charging noise is to blame.
Researchers We have likened the passage of a single icebreaker, increasingly present in the Arctic, to an underwater rock concert. Ship noise can be caused by everything from propellers to the shape of the hull to machinery on board a ship. It can disrupt activities that marine mammals need to survive, by reducing their contact space, causing stress and displacing them from important habitats.
Underwater noise from increased ship traffic Intensities in the Arctic have doubled over the past six years, and are expected to at least double again over the next decade, as ice melts and new shipping routes open up due to the climate crisis.
“The Mitimatalik Inuit community has noticed an increase in shipping and shipping noise, and the harvesters are not seeing narwhals in their usual places,” said Lisa Kuperkwalluk, chair of the Inuit Polar Council (ICC). “They have to get away to chase them, which involves risk, costs more fuel and affects the transmission of cultural knowledge.”
This week, the International Criminal Court, a body representing 180,000 Inuit in Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Chukotka in Russia has urged the UN’s International Maritime Organization (IMO) to adopt mandatory measures to reduce underwater shipping noise, which it fears affects marine mammals.
Although the Inuit rely on shipping for essential goods and services, they want to ensure a low impact for ships to North Pole The environment, which is sensitive to underwater noise as well as other pollution, is what Coopercoaloc said.
“Bowhead whales, belugas, ringed seals, narwhals—these are the major marine mammals we depend on and the Inuit harvesters harvest each year,” Cuprowaluk said. “If the hunting of the Inuit is affected, then the transmission of knowledge is affected as well. There is less opportunity for the younger generations to learn.”
Underwater ship noise It is known to affect some species of whales, including narwhal and belugas, as well as fish such as Arctic cod, according to the Arctic Council, an international forum for eight Arctic countries and six indigenous groups in the Arctic, including International Criminal Court.
In 2014, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) approved guidelines for reducing underwater noise from commercial shipping, and this week it is discussing whether to review them at a London meeting on ship design. The Inuit body wants mandatory guidelines, while Canada suggests A working group specifically to look at noise.
The committee is also responsible for incorporating Indigenous knowledge into its work, enabling Inuit and Indigenous communities to participate in the process as well as exploring ways to increase uptake of the Guidelines.
Inuit groups and other NGOs say that the voluntary nature of the guidelines means there has been little progress in reducing the noise of underwater shipping. a study By Transport Canada, the US Chamber of Shipping and WWF Canada have reported that the main barrier limiting uptake of the Guidelines is their non-binding and non-regulatory nature.
Meanwhile, underwater charging noise It continues to multiply Roughly every decade, it disproportionately affects the Arctic and Norwegian seas.
Sarah Pope, director of the Arctic Program at the Ocean Conservancy, urged the International Maritime Organization to act. “In addition to global measures, tougher regional measures will be necessary to reduce sound pollution from ships in regions such as the Arctic,” she said.
She said the Arctic is a special case because of the way sound propagates over long distances, how it can affect marine life and because of the resulting impact on Inuit communities.