7.8

• Urban noise pollution includes construction, transportation, industrial activity, domestic activity
• Noise pollution's effects on wildlife (land):

  • disrupts animal communication, migration, and damage hearing
  • Hearing:
  • can prevent predators from hearing prey and vice versa
  • can prevent mates from locating each other
  • both instances decrease survival rates
• The US Noise Control Act (1972): enables the EPA to regulate noise. EPA sets emission standards for sources of noise from transportation, machinery, and construction
• Noise pollution effects on wildlife (aquatic):

  • Aquatic noise pollution comes from the noise of ship engines, military sonar, and seismic air blasts from oil and gas surveying ships
  • Physiological stress:
  • hearing loss, disrupted communication, mating calls, predator/prey navigation
  • Seismic surveying: ships send huge air blasts down into the water, searching for oil by recording how the echo is returned from the ocean floor