When the whales stop singing
Jul 11, 2020, 02:50 PM
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HMM Algeciras reimagined by Cities and Memory.
"The world's largest ship may well be an awesome feat of engineering, but it is also a stark warning of the level of pollution with which we're filling the oceans - and it's about sound pollution as well as the better-known pollutants.
"Sound pollution is a major issue for marine life - marine and shipping noise can damage or even kill marine life such as whales, crabs or squid, and dolphins are being forced to simplify their calls due to undersea shipping and drilling noise. Whales have been reported to have been lost far from their breeding grounds, disorientated by noise from the shipping lanes.
"This piece moves from above the surface to below and back again, dipping up and down to show on the one hand the excitement of spectators checking out the ship's arrival - and beneath the surface, the synth lines represent the whales and other marine life being disorientated and devastated by our shipping noise.
"The synth lines are built largely from whale song, and some underwater hydrophone recordings from beneath the River Elbe in Germany are blended into the undersea sections."
"The world's largest ship may well be an awesome feat of engineering, but it is also a stark warning of the level of pollution with which we're filling the oceans - and it's about sound pollution as well as the better-known pollutants.
"Sound pollution is a major issue for marine life - marine and shipping noise can damage or even kill marine life such as whales, crabs or squid, and dolphins are being forced to simplify their calls due to undersea shipping and drilling noise. Whales have been reported to have been lost far from their breeding grounds, disorientated by noise from the shipping lanes.
"This piece moves from above the surface to below and back again, dipping up and down to show on the one hand the excitement of spectators checking out the ship's arrival - and beneath the surface, the synth lines represent the whales and other marine life being disorientated and devastated by our shipping noise.
"The synth lines are built largely from whale song, and some underwater hydrophone recordings from beneath the River Elbe in Germany are blended into the undersea sections."