More than 160 scientists from around the world, experts in noise pollution at sea, are meeting starting Monday and throughout the week at the OCEANOISE2023 congress, organized by the Bioacoustic Applications Laboratory (LAB) of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia ( UPC) in Vilanova i la Geltrú (Barcelona, northeast).
The international congress intends, according to the UPC, to discuss the problems generated by noise of human origin at sea and possible solutions to mitigate its effects on marine fauna.
The congress is held in the Eduard Toldrà Auditorium in Vilanova i la Geltrú and was inaugurated by the director of the UPC Bioacoustic Applications Laboratory (LAB), Michel André, considered a world leader in marine noise pollution, and the mayoress of Vilanova (northeast), Olga Arnau.
The meeting brings together specialists from 25 countries: the United States, Canada, China, Japan, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, France, Portugal, Spain, Germany, Poland, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Australia, Iceland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Israel , New Zealand, Korea, Hungary, Brazil and South Africa.
“The attendees are the leading international experts in measurements, mapping and modeling of noise in the oceanphysiological and behavioral effects in the marine environment, as well as regulation and mitigation procedures,” the organizers highlighted.
Throughout the week they will discuss, in different sessions that include presentations and talks, the problem of noise pollution at sea generated by the transport of goods, fishing or geophysical prospecting, the construction of wind farms or military maneuvers, among other matters.
They will also present the latest technology available to measure noise at sea.
The UPC LAB, linked to the Vilanova i la Geltrú Higher Polytechnic School of Engineering (EPSEVG), is internationally recognized as a leading research laboratory in the study of the effects of noise pollution in the ocean.
This laboratory demonstrated in several studies that marine organisms, including cetaceans, fish and invertebrates, can suffer serious hearing damage caused by continuous exposure to low frequency sound levels.
The LAB also demonstrated how noise of anthropogenic origin affects Posidonia meadows.
The marine biologists highlighted that all these marine species have an essential role in the balance of the oceans and, if they are threatened by human activity, the entire food chain can be unbalanced and affect the biodiversity of ocean ecosystems.