The Ocean Decade: how the next ten years can chart a new course for the blue planet

By Jack Marley, Environment + Energy Editor, UK edition

When birdsong was filling the muted days of the first lockdown, marine scientists were noticing something similar in the world’s oceans. Container vessels, cruise ships and drilling platforms had fallen silent, and so the oceans grew quieter than at any other time in recent memory. Researchers are trying to understand how the lull affected ocean life, but there are already stories of whales seizing the chance to sing and dolphins venturing into coastal areas they’d avoided for decades.

The year of the quiet ocean is over, and noise pollution is roaring back to pre-pandemic levels, drowning…

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