Boat Activity: Contributing to the Rise of Noise Pollution

-

By Kelly Cusick

Anthropogenic noise pollution is an invisible threat to marine life that is on the rise, which people often do not realize is a problem at all. Sound serves an essential role for many marine species, as they utilize sound for communication, foraging, and navigation throughout their daily lives (Duarte et al. 2021). Unfortunately, human activities, especially boating traffic, continues to increase, resulting in negative impacts on marine life. Listening to the sounds in the sea is achievable, thanks to the technology of hydrophones and recorders, which have allowed me to conduct my thesis this past year. As I analyzed files to investigate the impacts of tropical cyclones on bottlenose dolphin sound production, I noticed high rates of boat traffic noise before and after the storms. As I kept hearing these constant, unpleasant roars of engines during my research, it led me to wonder how this affects bottlenose dolphins. More importantly, how well is the issue known to boaters?

Very few people, especially boaters, are aware that their contribution to increased noise pollution does pose a threat to bottlenose dolphins. This is where my project came to life! I decided my goal for this project would be to develop an interactive infographic to alert and engage the boaters and fellow Florida residents about the issue of marine noise pollution. I acknowledge that recreational boating serves as a stress-reliever and a way for people to appreciate the beauty of nature surrounding them. As a fellow boater, I want to ensure that there are ways to help reduce noise activity without threatening them to stop boating.

As I began my project, I used a message box to help me organize and prepare my educational infographic to help me determine what approaches would work best for a certain audience, especially for Florida boaters and residents. The message box includes different components such as the core issue, specific problems, why it matters, solutions, and benefits to reducing boat noise in the marine ecosystems (Figure 1; Baron 2010). The bottlenose dolphins served as a visual condensation symbol, an image to help construct the Florida boaters' and residents’ understanding of the broader issue of marine noise pollution and ready them for action (Pezzullo & Cox 2018). In addition to the message box, I followed the guidelines provided by Murray and colleagues to maximize the impact of prior research work through the use of an infographic (2017). The user-friendly program, infogram.com, allowed me to design a visually appealing interactive infographic to capture the public’s attention. I provided a narrative to guide the readers through the information and emphasized key messages by using larger fonts with contrasting colors to attract the audience’s attention (Murray et al. 2017). 



Figure 1. Message Box (https://infogram.com/message-box-1hzj4o3p87gro4p?live).


Since the infographic summarized and illustrated the environmental issue regarding boat noise pollution, the compelling facts and connections of videos and images will help shift the boaters’ perceptions of their actions (Pezzullo and Cox 2018). I incorporated hypermediacy in my project by combining multiple forms of media such as images, hyperlinks, and videos to ensure the best viewing experience for the audience (Pezzullo & Cox 2018). Originally, I planned to upload soundbites but was unfortunately unable to do so. I had to re-strategize and become more creative in implementing soundbites for the boaters to listen to. Then, a light bulb lit up above my head! Instead of the viewers clicking on an audio recording, the youtube videos incorporated both visual and auditory modes of the spectrograms of dolphins sounds. This change in plans actually ended up being better than my original plan because the audience can visually observe and listen to the difference between the dolphins' sounds with and without boat traffic.


🚤(project link: https://infogram.com/marine-noise-pollution-1hzj4o38jp0j34p?live) 🚤


Since we all are still in the midst of the pandemic, despite the increased rates of people being vaccinated, I decided to choose Facebook as a platform to present my infographic. Luckily, there are many Florida Boaters Facebook and St. Petersburg group pages (I was accepted by, and distributed my infographic to ten groups). Social media serves as a powerful tool to convey important messages to a broader audience since a prior study found that infographics are shared eight more times on social media than hard copies distributed in local areas (Murray et al. 2017). Even if the infographic was not re-shared through Facebook, it has the potential to inspire boaters and residents to share this information with their friends and family as well as other fellow members in the boating community.

Overall, this project had some surprising turnouts. It was disappointing that I fell short of my goals because I received about 16 reactions and 8 pledges, while my goal was to gain 20 reactions and 15 pledges. At the end of April, I received a notification from the infogram website. I was giddy with joy because my infographic had over 50 views in one week after distributing it to four group pages! What was most important for me was to bring some insight to allow boaters to become more aware of this issue. This infographic was able to do that. I am looking forward to experimenting with different modes of communication that focus on marine noise pollution to continue to advocate for marine species by sharing their voices in the sea. Even though the infographic did not receive many reactions on Facebook, I hope that the infographic brought a little more awareness of marine noise pollution and inspired others to begin speaking about this issue. 



References:

Baron, N. (2010). Escape from the ivory tower: a guide to making your science matter.

            Island Press.

Duarte, C. M., Chapuis, L., Collin, S. P., Costa, D. P., Devassy, R. P., Eguiluz, V. M., ... & 

Juanes, F. (2021). The soundscape of the Anthropocene ocean. Science, 371(6529).

Murray, I. R., Murray, A. D., Wordie, S. J., Oliver, C. W., Murray, A. W., & Simpson, A. H. R.

W. (2017). Maximising the impact of your work using infographics.

Pezzullo, P. and Cox, R. (2018). Environmental communication and the public sphere, 5th  

Edition. Sage Publications.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fishing for a Future: Educating the public about destructive fishing

-
Image
       Fisheries are one of the most productive aspects of our society’s economy. We rely on fisheries for not only our food but also our income. However, destructive fishing practices plague the industry, leading to issues in sustainability. From excessive bycatch to destruction of the ocean floor, the fishing industry needs to start changing for the better. It is estimated that about 17-22% of what is caught by all fisheries is bycatch. That approximates to 2 billion pounds per year (Oceana, 2014). The fact is, these practices are not “necessary” and bycatch is not “inevitable.” We can, and should, do better.        For my project, I chose to create an Instagram page called “Fishing for a Future” ( https://www.instagram.com/fishingforafuture/ ). My goal was to educate people on these issues and make the information on these topics more “digestible.” The reports on unsustainable fishing and bycatch (like the bycatch reports put out by NOAA) a...
Read more

Defeating Deforestation

-
Image
                    Defeating Deforestation    Could your weekly shopping trip to the store be contributing to massive deforestation throughout the world? The answer may be yes! Each year 66 million tons of palm oil are harvested and sold on a global scale. Commonly used in vegetable oil, biofuel, and even your shampoo “Oil palm plantations currently cover more than 27 million hectares of the Earth’s surface” (“ Palm Oil – Everyday Products”). Palm oil has been a main ingredient in the creation of biofuels and, since 2009, have been required to be mixed with vehicle fuel. Emitting high levels of both carbon dioxide and methane gas, these biofuels are impacting our climate three times as much as before. Sadly, if our planet’s climate change crisis was not enough, the deforestation in pursuit of palm oil has led to massive habitat destruction. When the forests have been cleared and a new plantation is created, they can ...
Read more

Sustainable Fishing is the Key to a Healthier Ocean

-
Image
  - May 19, 2021 By: Nataliya Bernstein, Amelia Davis, and Jennifer Clifton Sustainable Fishing is the Key to a Healthier Ocean There are many environmental issues that affect the ocean, but one extremely significant threat is unsustainable fishing. The ocean’s ecosystems are being depleted by the fishing industry around the world. These industries have one goal: catch as many fish as possible to maximize income. Guidelines are put in place to make sure that boats do not take more fish than allowed, however it is difficult to regulate the amount of fish coming in when it comes to fishing out at sea. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has estimated that nearly 75 percent of fish populations have been depleted and are still decreasing (Roheim and Sutinen, 2006). The main goal of this project was to bring attention to the problem of destructive fishing practices and educate others on how sustainable fishing can ensure the well-being of marine life. Making fishing a...
Read more