0:00

Hey listeners, we have a very rare opening

0:02

for an Associate Sound Designer mixer here at

0:05

De facto Sound. That's my sound

0:07

design studio and the studio behind 20,000 Hz. To

0:10

learn more, visit jobs.de

0:12

factosound.com. This application window closes

0:14

on May 22nd. Now

0:17

onto the show. Ever

0:23

since I was a kid, I've been fascinated

0:26

by the ocean and the creatures that inhabit

0:28

it. Giant squids, glow

0:30

in the dark fish, octopi that

0:32

can instantly change their color and

0:34

texture. It sounds more like

0:37

science fiction than reality. The

0:39

oceans cover 71% of the Earth's surface,

0:41

and almost 95% of the oceans have

0:43

never been seen

0:45

by human eyes. It's like

0:47

an alien planet, but right here on

0:49

Earth. Every

0:52

year, we learn a little bit more

0:54

about this mysterious world and its complex

0:56

ecosystem, and that includes how

0:58

we humans affect that ecosystem. Now

1:01

we did a show about this 174 episodes ago way back

1:03

in 2017, but a lot has changed since

1:07

then. So I wanted to update

1:10

that episode. This version has

1:12

been totally remixed with new narration,

1:14

new music, and new information. You're

1:19

listening to 20,000 Hz. I'm

1:22

Dallas Taylor. The

1:32

sound you just heard is one of the

1:34

most mysterious underwater sounds we know of. It's

1:37

called the Bloop. It was recorded in 1997,

1:39

and it's unbelievably loud. The

1:43

sound was roughly triangulated to be coming from

1:45

a remote region of the Southern Pacific Ocean,

1:47

just west of the tip of South America.

1:50

The microphones that captured this sound were over

1:52

3,000 miles away. Could

1:57

it be a massive, undiscovered monster from the

1:59

deep? Researchers are still discovering

2:01

new aquatic life every year, but this

2:04

sound was several times greater than even

2:06

the loudest animal in the world, the

2:08

blue whale. NOAA, the National

2:11

Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, now believes

2:13

it was an ice quake or

2:15

an iceberg scraping the ocean floor.

2:18

Or was it? The

2:23

bloop is only one of the

2:25

many mysterious, possibly unexplainable underwater sounds.

2:28

Another one is the Western Pacific

2:30

Bio-twang, heard in the Mariana Trench.

2:41

Experts think that it's a new type of

2:43

dwarf minke whale call that we've never heard

2:45

before. Here's another strange vocalization

2:47

from a minke whale, which has been

2:49

referred to as the Star Wars sound.

2:56

In 2016, there was a weird beeping

2:58

sound coming from the ocean floor off the coast

3:00

of northern Canada. It

3:06

was so intense that Inuits could hear

3:08

it on land, and it was scaring

3:10

away animals. The Canadian military even investigated

3:12

and couldn't figure it out. There's

3:14

another sound that's been called the upsweep

3:17

that's been recorded every year since 1991,

3:19

coming from the middle of the Pacific

3:21

Ocean. Scientists

3:26

think it might be caused by

3:28

undersea volcanoes pouring out hot lava

3:30

into cold water. In

3:33

2023, researchers off the coast of India picked

3:35

up this buzz from an unknown species. So

3:41

far, this creature hasn't been identified,

3:43

but scientists hope that AI audio

3:45

software will help them narrow it down.

3:51

Underwater sound has always been interesting to me.

3:54

As a kid, I loved to stick my head underwater

3:56

with a friend and try to talk. And

4:00

we will try to see if we could understand what

4:02

the other with sake and. Back

4:07

then I always wondered how I could

4:09

even hear anything under water without any

4:11

air out of the sound travel. There.

4:16

Are physical properties of the

4:19

water. That. Make

4:21

sound behaves in very

4:23

different ways. That. Sell

4:25

Jones He's an underwater acoustician and

4:27

a former navy soon are technician.

4:30

For. Starters: sound travels about

4:32

eleven. twelve hundred feet per

4:34

second in the air. Multiply

4:36

that times four in. That's.

4:39

The speed of sound that you get in the

4:41

water. It's. Faster and water

4:43

because of the properties of

4:45

the medium itself. For instance,

4:47

sound travels in pure steals.

4:51

Fourteen times as fast, As. So.

4:55

The denser the medium becomes, the

4:57

more molecules that the sound waves

5:00

gets to interact with, and it

5:02

proceeds down it's pass inherently faster

5:04

that way. Out spent

5:07

years working as a sonar technician on

5:09

a submarine. a craft that relies on

5:11

sound for navigation. Sound is crucial, just

5:14

in the same way that your eyes

5:16

are. You're navigating around in a thing

5:18

that does not have windows as I

5:20

have outside cameras. You just

5:23

driving essentially by sound. After

5:26

while becomes very intuitive for you

5:28

to be able to listen in

5:30

one direction. notice that there is

5:32

setting that way. Hearing those things

5:34

drives us to either analyze what

5:36

that saying is, board to think

5:39

danger, danger. We need to drive

5:41

away from that because we might

5:43

pit something. Without

5:45

advanced equipment, trying to hear anything

5:47

specific underwater can be a huge

5:50

challenge. The first thing that you'll

5:52

recognize. When you're trying to

5:54

listen underwater is all of

5:57

the competing activity that you're

5:59

trying to listen through in

6:01

order to find something interesting.

6:05

The motion of the water is very loud

6:08

and it's ever present as you're listening. Hearing

6:11

the motors of other ships like

6:14

your cruise liner. Even

6:16

know trawler motor is going back

6:19

into. As.

6:27

Humans. We use sound to navigate the

6:29

oceans with the help of technology, and

6:32

many aquatic species have evolved to do

6:34

the same thing. It. Turns out

6:36

that light does not propagate very

6:38

far into the ocean. That's.

6:41

John Hildebrand, a professor at

6:43

the Scripps Institution of Oceanography,

6:45

Of. Your at the surface of the ocean. There's. Light

6:47

may be the first hundred meters or

6:49

so in the upper part of the

6:51

ocean. It's. Not a very good

6:54

media to since your surroundings. We

6:57

are very visual animals site is kind

6:59

of our primary way of censoring things,

7:01

and we use sound to sort of

7:03

a secondary sense. But in

7:05

the ocean? That's exactly flipped because. Like

7:08

doesn't propagate very well, but

7:10

sounds propagates very efficiently. The.

7:13

Study of underwater sounds is

7:15

still pretty recent. Scientists knew

7:17

almost nothing about the sounds

7:19

until the invention of underwater

7:22

microphones called hydrophones. Once. We

7:24

started to have this technology. Then

7:26

we became aware of this whole

7:29

universe as sounds that are underwater,

7:31

both from natural phenomena. The sounders

7:33

bubbles that are created new surface.

7:37

Or you know, the wind's blowing across the

7:39

surface. And

7:41

wage breaking. But.

7:44

They're also this entire universe

7:46

of sound. It's made by

7:48

marine organisms, even small creatures

7:50

that make quite. Intense

7:52

sounds. You'll hear

7:54

invertebrates more than just about anything else,

7:57

and they make a lot of noise.

8:00

The. Jellyfish.

8:06

When. You have a lot of

8:09

shrimp together that tends to

8:11

sunlight, baking, grease frying and

8:13

ups. The snapping of clause is

8:15

a manner of communicating with more

8:18

a manner of drawing pray toward

8:20

one another. People describe

8:22

some of the sounds of Wales

8:24

as song. Song.

8:33

Because it's repetitive, it's

8:36

melodic in some way.

8:40

If you spend on on a whale

8:43

watching cruise, you can sometimes hear them

8:45

out in the air because they are

8:47

so loud underwater. When

8:53

you're listening underwater to Wales,

8:55

that can be incredibly cathartic.

8:59

It's such a pure sound do

9:01

a that the sounds manifests themselves

9:03

underwater. Hearing

9:06

him underwater in person is quite

9:08

an experience. Feeling

9:21

Wales the large whales are little different.

9:23

They do have songs where the males

9:25

will just broadcast the same thing. Songs

9:30

have meaning. From

9:33

even hearing a very small piece of the

9:35

song, you can kind of relate the whole

9:37

meaning. You

9:41

know there's this game that's called name That

9:43

Tune. If you just hear a few notes

9:45

and I can name the rest of the

9:47

tune, I could do this with you. If

9:50

I say jingle right you know the rest

9:52

and you think about Santa in the presents

9:54

under the tree and news a whole complex

9:56

the things that go along with that. if

9:58

there's if standardized mess. You want to get

10:01

across a song is a very efficient way

10:03

of doing that because from tiny pieces of

10:05

it, you get the whole message. I

10:08

am the one that you would like

10:10

to breed with. I am the most

10:13

fit mail that you will encounter. Come

10:15

on our. The

10:20

Bailing Wales when they sing the

10:22

big ones that are singing very

10:24

intensely. Those

10:26

are very intense as a D

10:28

position your body neera, failing whale.

10:31

Whether making these sounds, your whole

10:33

body would be vibrating. Large

10:39

whales are specialized for broadcasting these

10:41

sounds a long way so that

10:43

if you're girl is twenty miles

10:46

away so still hear. Now

10:50

apart as ago at low frequency,

10:52

there's essentially no absorption of sound

10:55

at all. Water is like a

10:57

window for sound, so that's why

10:59

these intense songs of the large

11:01

Wales like a blue whale, you

11:03

could have a whale of California

11:05

and you can probably hear it

11:07

in a white. Whale.

11:20

Songs are some of the most beautiful

11:22

sounds and nature, but unfortunately we're in

11:25

danger of losing them. Underwater noise pollution

11:27

is on the rise. It's a big

11:29

problem that we're still trying to fully

11:32

understand, but as dire as things may

11:34

seem, there are concrete actions we can

11:36

take that would make a big difference.

11:39

That's all coming out after the break.

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getting last episodes mystery sooner I'd. The

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like could songs sound from the intro of

13:07

A Current Affair which was a popular American

13:10

New so from the eighties and nineties. Here's.

13:12

Maury Povich, the show's original host

13:15

describing how that sound was made.

13:17

It was the sound of a

13:20

construction paper cutter, the old time

13:22

elementary school construction paper cutters and

13:24

the swiss of a golf club

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here's this episodes mystery sued. If

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wherever you get your podcasts. The

16:26

underwater world of the ocean is sound rich, just

16:28

as much as it is here on land. As

16:31

humans, our ears are perfectly evolved

16:34

for our atmosphere, but once we

16:36

go beneath the waves, hearing becomes

16:38

much harder for us. On

16:40

the other hand, the hearing instruments of

16:42

marine life are perfectly suited to their

16:44

environment. Unfortunately, these animals don't

16:46

have the ability to protect their own

16:49

hearing, so we have to do it

16:51

for them, and the sounds of human

16:53

activity have a huge impact on the

16:55

well-being of undersea life. To

17:00

learn more about this, I got in touch

17:02

with Christoph Habersen. He's a journalist from Vox

17:04

who's done some great field research on this

17:06

topic. I

17:10

recently went scuba diving for the first time ever.

17:14

I went in expecting muffled peace

17:17

and quiet, but as soon as

17:19

I got down a few yards, I couldn't help but notice

17:21

that there was sound all around me. It

17:24

was coming from boats. As

17:28

far as I can tell, the earth's water is

17:30

not silent. So

17:32

I did a little digging, and according

17:34

to the Scripps Whale Acoustic Lab, man-made

17:37

or anthropogenic noise in oceans has doubled

17:39

every decade for the last 50 years.

17:42

And that is a really big problem for

17:44

animals that use sound as their primary sense

17:47

of communication. Just listen

17:49

to this audio of how noise from a

17:51

passing boat totally drowns out dolphin communication. But

18:16

arguably, the worst culprit of underwater sound

18:18

is a process that sounds like this.

18:29

One is seismic surveying. It's

18:31

a process that allows companies to essentially

18:33

locate spots on the ocean floor where

18:36

they can drill for fossil fuels. So

18:38

you'll have boats with about 30 or 40 air guns

18:41

that'll all go off at once. And

18:52

those will move back and forth over large parts of

18:54

the ocean. And bubbles from

18:57

the horns expand and contract, about

18:59

every 10 seconds typically. And

19:01

that creates a huge amount of acoustic energy. And

19:04

that helps them map geological structures very deep

19:06

into the ocean floor. And

19:08

that process is about as loud as a jet. And

19:13

this can go on for weeks at a time. A

19:16

study of seismic survey noise between 1999 and 2009 found

19:18

that air gun sounds were recorded almost

19:22

2,500 miles away from the

19:25

survey ship itself. At

19:27

some locations, they were recorded on 80% of days for

19:29

over a year. And

19:32

that changes how animals behave. For

19:34

animals like whales, who rely on

19:36

complex sound communication systems to socialize

19:38

and find food and mate, that

19:41

poses a huge problem. And

19:44

naval sonar can be just as problematic.

19:46

At its source, these sonar sounds can

19:49

be as loud as a rocket taking

19:51

off. For any creatures in the immediate

19:53

area, that level of noise is really

19:55

dangerous. But Even 300 miles away,

19:57

sonar can be as loud as possible. Loud

20:00

as a grinding garbage disposal.

20:02

Now imagine naval ships all

20:04

over the world doing this

20:06

pretty soon. Sued portions of

20:08

the ocean are being bombarded

20:10

by the sounds. Now.

20:18

Seismic surveying and military sonar are

20:20

the most extreme examples, but even

20:22

regular engine noise can add up

20:24

quickly. In. Many

20:26

parts of the ocean, we've raised the ambient

20:28

noise level by thirty davies. Now. Miss

20:31

Say I'm in a move into your office

20:33

and I'm going to increase that noise level

20:35

by thirty dbs. A I

20:37

believe it would be very annoying. That.

20:40

Be I think there's long term damage. You're

20:42

needing to wear earplugs just to go to work. A

20:45

study by Dr. Susan Parks at Syracuse

20:47

University compared recordings of North Atlantic right

20:50

whale calls from the two thousands. To

20:56

those recorded in the nineteen fifties, It.

21:00

Seemed like the older recordings had been

21:03

slowed down. Until

21:05

Susan realized something amazing. The whales

21:07

were calling in a different sense

21:09

again. here's what the Will Call

21:12

sounded like in the fifties. And

21:16

here's what it sounded like in the two thousand.

21:22

Susan. Found that these whales have

21:24

been changing their frequency over the decades.

21:26

Why? Because the higher pitched calls can

21:28

be heard more clearly amongst all of

21:31

the noise from ships. The. Gulf

21:33

of Mexico where the noise levels are

21:35

so high. The whales that depend on

21:37

low frequency sounds like blue whales are

21:40

a. They're all gone.

21:42

They're. Not there. There's. Only

21:44

one bailing? Well, that's left. In

21:46

the Gulf of Mexico. And. Confines itself

21:49

to a little corner where the the cell levels

21:51

are not quite so bad. On

21:53

the Brutus whale. And. Surprise, there

21:55

are only a couple dozen of them lost.

22:04

Human caused sound can damage the

22:06

hearing organs of marine life. They

22:08

can drive them away from their

22:10

natural habitat and reduce their ability

22:12

to find food and avoid predators.

22:15

And it gets even worse. In

22:19

order to escape the painful wall

22:22

of sound produced by military sonar,

22:24

whales and dolphins will sometimes swim

22:26

to the surface much more quickly

22:28

than they normally would. This can

22:30

cause decompression sickness and these animals

22:33

commonly known as the bends in

22:35

humans. the effects can range from

22:37

severe disorientation to organ failure and

22:39

even death. In two thousand

22:42

and five during a Navy. So

22:44

in training off the coast of

22:46

North Carolina, thirty four Wales from

22:48

three different species got stranded on

22:50

shore and died. It's a tragic

22:52

story, and it's not the only

22:54

time this has happened. But.

22:56

Over the years incidents like these

22:58

have raised awareness of this issue

23:00

and prompted people to start looking

23:02

for solutions. The. First step

23:05

is we gotta care. We are

23:07

to realize just as a problem and and we have

23:09

to. The quality of

23:11

the ocean is based on the level

23:13

just as much as it is on

23:15

things like pollution from plastic and overfishing

23:17

and all these kind of things. So.

23:20

If you go on a cruise ship Big

23:22

nice, awesome cruise ship. This. Quiet.

23:24

And it's quiet because they want the

23:26

people on that ship to have a

23:28

good experience. And so they've

23:30

done a lot of tricks to insulate

23:32

all of the cabins and parts of

23:34

the ship where people are from the

23:37

noise of the propulsion and generators and

23:39

all discussing. The Navy cares

23:41

about the steeply because. They.

23:43

Don't want their ships. To. Be

23:45

detected. So what? They found his.

23:47

You. can design more complicated propellers you

23:49

can insulate all the machinery you put

23:52

the machinery or shock amounts so there

23:54

are things you can do it you

23:56

said here's a commercial ships were gonna

23:58

have a sounds criteria If

24:00

you output a sound above this level

24:02

you cannot come into port Then

24:05

the industry cares and then they design ships

24:07

that are quiet and then over the span

24:09

of a decade or two We could I

24:11

think get it down. Maybe 10 DBs or

24:13

more There would be a help Like

24:19

the rainforest the ocean is an

24:21

incredibly complex ecosystem that we still

24:24

don't completely understand and just like

24:26

cutting down the rainforest Underwater noise

24:28

pollution could have devastating effects on

24:31

the planet, but all is

24:33

not lost I'm

24:37

hopeful that there's some future technology that

24:39

we haven't even thought of that can

24:41

do the same job without generating so

24:43

much noise But this is something that

24:45

we have to pay attention to first Fortunately

24:48

governments around the world are starting to

24:50

take this problem seriously Countries

24:53

like the US Norway Australia

24:55

and Brazil have enacted regulations

24:57

around things like naval sonar

24:59

and seismic surveying These

25:02

laws are meant to minimize the impact

25:04

of these activities on marine life For

25:06

instance certain areas may be off-limits during

25:09

seasons when marine mammals are known to

25:11

be breeding or migrating Since

25:13

2016 Canada has dedicated three

25:15

point five billion dollars to

25:17

the oceans protection plan It's a

25:19

huge national initiative to protect ocean

25:22

habitats and reduce the impacts of

25:24

shipping and pollution including

25:26

underwater noise and in

25:28

March of 2024 the

25:30

European Union set legally enforceable limits

25:32

on underwater noise pollution within the

25:34

EU One of the main

25:37

ways to stay under these limits is

25:39

an idea called blue speeds Which would

25:41

limit the speed of commercial vessels to

25:43

seventy five percent of their maximum doing

25:45

this could reduce underwater noise pollution by?

25:48

25% and reduce the risk of ships colliding with

25:50

whales by 23% All

25:54

around the world people are working tirelessly

25:56

to help the creatures of the ocean

25:58

survive and thrive and the

26:00

more people that get involved, the better chance

26:02

they have. That way, we

26:05

can continue to share the planet

26:07

with these amazing animals for centuries

26:09

to come. Now that...

26:11

sounds great. 20,000

26:24

Hz is produced out of the sound design

26:27

studios of de facto sound. To hear more,

26:29

follow de facto sound on Instagram. This

26:31

episode was produced and edited by Kevin Eds.

26:34

And Casey Emmerling. With help from

26:36

Grace East. It was sound

26:38

designed and mixed by Colin Devarny. Thanks

26:41

to our guests, Al Jones, John Hildebrand,

26:43

and Christoph Habersen. To learn more about

26:45

their work, just follow the links in

26:47

the show notes. I'm Dallas

26:49

Taylor. Thanks for listening. A

26:57

quick thanks to Apple Podcasts for featuring me

26:59

as one of their creators we love. If

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you're hearing this before May 27th, open up

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the Apple Podcasts app, go to browse, scroll

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photo of my face. If you're

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hearing me after May 27th, go to my Instagram

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or LinkedIn and you can see it there.

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Honestly, it's probably the best photo ever taken of me. So

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if you're a new listener that came from that

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Apple Podcast feature, welcome to 20,000 Hz. For

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