The International Maritime Organization, a United Nations agency responsible for keeping global shipping safe and preventing industrial pollution, is revising the 2014 Guidelines for Merchant Vessels to reduce underwater noise that threatens some marine species.
Among the organizations pushing for change, a group representing Inuit communities in Canada, the US, Greenland and Chukotka, an autonomous district of Russia, had called for greater protection of the marine animals on which their livelihoods and culture depend.
The draft revisions, which have yet to be approved by the IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee this summer, contain several references to the Inuit nunaat, or homeland. For the first time, they also recognize the importance of indigenous knowledge in measuring the environmental impact of shipping noise.
“We emerged from the meetings very encouraged,” said Lisa Koperqualuk, president of the Inuit Circumpolar Council, which has been pushing for stricter measures to reduce underwater noise in the Arctic. While the group failed to include an Arctic-specific appendix in the revised guidelines, the Aboriginal inclusions are “a wonderful advancement over the previous guidelines,” Koperqualuk said.
Scientists are increasingly pointing to the importance of Inuit expertise when attempting to assess the impact of development on Arctic habitats. Climate change is opening up the global Arctic to more shipping, bringing economic opportunities to some indigenous communities, but also creating new risks.
As more ships arrive, the Inuit are observing changes in animal behavior, including migratory and reproductive patterns. Some marine species, such as ringed seals and narwhals, are of particular importance to Arctic communities.
The revised guidelines outline best practices for merchant vessels to reduce noise, including optimizing propeller and hull design, reducing speed, adjusting routes to minimize passage through sensitive areas, and proper maintenance. While they apply to global shipping, the revisions indicate that noise-sensitive species in the Arctic, as well as the Inuit living there, may be affected.
“Additional efforts to reduce impacts on marine fauna are advisable for ships operating in these areas, including paying particular attention to reducing noise pollution from icebreaking and implementing operational approaches and monitoring,” the IMO said in the revised guidelines.
Silent arctic
Waters in the Inuit Nunaat are naturally calmer than those in other parts of the world, and noise can travel further for reasons such as temperature, seabed shallowness and changing salinity gradients, the Inuit Circumpolar Council argued in its submission to the IMO.
Meanwhile, icebreakers and ships that can traverse the region are likely to be noisier. Noise pollution from ships more than doubled in some parts of the Arctic between 2013 and 2019, according to a report by Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment (PAME).
Some arctic sea creatures may have evolved better hearing for navigating under thick ice than their relatives elsewhere. “Underwater noise in some parts of the Arctic is already at levels that are likely to affect the ability of whales, seals and walruses to communicate and use sounds, and could affect other marine life,” the report said. “As sea ice continues to decrease, shipping and underwater noise will increase.”
The Inuit Council also advocated mandatory rather than voluntary rules. There was some openness in the room about this need, but it’s a “difficult discussion,” Koperqualuk said, and the guidelines remain non-binding. The council was given consultative status with the IMO in 2021 and the next step is to make its status permanent, she added.
The risk that increased shipments of iron ore would disrupt narwhal behavior was a major concern among Inuit people in Canada, who last year successfully opposed a major mining expansion proposal by Baffinland Iron Mines.
