Name: The Invisible Threat Orcas Face In Norway
Uploaded: 2020-11-21T18:46:22.000Z
Duration: 7 min 47 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

- [Narrator] Orcas have a language of their own.

They communicate through touch, movement,

Ellyne Hamran's job to eavesdrop on them.

like whales and dolphins use to communicate.

She's captured hundreds of hours of orca recordings,

- Whales are using sound as their primary sense

unlike humans that are using their vision.

So, it's very important for whales to be able

to communicate to each other, to find mates,

to search for prey, also to navigate the area.

- [Narrator] This summer, she's listening to the orcas

beloved by the creatures for its healthy populations

But an invisible problem is increasingly alarming experts,

noise pollution from whale-watching cruises,

oil exploration, and other human activity.

Ellyne has set out to study how it affects the whales

to help make Lofoten a marine protected area,

limiting unwelcome noise and blocking oil drilling.

a nonprofit that advocates for marine ecosystem conservation

and has been tracking orcas here in Lofoten since 2003.

On a typical day, Ellyne, her husband Bjorn,

their dog Bailey, and a team of researchers

in an inflatable boat looking for action.

When they spot whales, they slowly approach,

then turn off the engine to minimize noise.

called a hydrophone to record vocalizations.

It can be whistles, calls, buzzes, clicks,

They're a little bit more quiet when they're traveling.

- [Narrator] They also photograph the orcas

The scientists assign each of them a number

and inexpensive way of doing the research.

Over time, they match the orcas' sounds up with behaviors,

gradually learning their complex language.

The large population of whales also attracts thousands

of people looking for boat tours every year.

can actually be quite disturbing to ocean life.

- We've had issues of boats zooming through pods,

sometimes even between the mother and calf.

even loud enough that you want to turn the volume down,

And I don't think people are aware of this issue.

- [Narrator] When a boat drives too close to orcas,

- [Narrator] And it can scare away the fish orcas feed on.

- [Ellyne] They spend quite a lot of time

- [Narrator] The looming threat of oil drilling

In 2019, the Norwegian government reached

a deal to block drilling in Lofoten for now.

companies can still use blasts of compressed air

to map where oil lies beneath the ocean floor.

to marine life than fireworks from three feet away.

but studies have found that a single air gun blast

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The Invisible Threat Orcas Face In Norway

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