Orcas are under threat from man-made noise pollution. These scientists are fighting to protect them.
Orcas have a language of their own. They communicate through touch, movement, and most importantly, sound.Hamran is an acoustic researcher studying the sounds marine mammals like whales and dolphins use to communicate. She's captured hundreds of hours of orca recordings.
Hamran works for Ocean Sounds, a nonprofit that advocates for marine ecosystem conservation and has been tracking orcas here in Lofoten since 2003. They also photograph the whales to keep track of the family groups. Bjørn operates a drone that films whales from above. The scientists assign a number to each orca and add them to a catalog.
"We've had issues of boats zooming through pods, sometimes even between the mother and calf," Hamran said. "It's also quite loud on the hydrophone, even loud enough that you want to turn the volume down, but the whales are not able to go in and modify how loud the boats are. And I don't think people are aware of this issue.
Because orcas are instinctively collaborative, communication is central to everything they do. Disoriented whales may also swim out of their usual living area — Hamran said the whales often swim dangerously close to the rocky coastline to get away from the boat noise.
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