Noiseonomics: The relationship between ambient noise levels in the sea and global economic trends

In recent years, the topic of noise in the sea and its effects on marine mammals has attracted considerable
attention from both the scientific community and the general public. Since marine mammals rely heavily on
acoustics as a primary means of communicating, navigating, and foraging in the ocean, any change in their
acoustic environment may have an impact on their behavior. Specifically, a growing body of literature
suggests that low-frequency, ambient noise levels in the open ocean increased approximately 3.3 dB per
decade during the period 1950–2007. Here we show that this increase can be attributed primarily to
commercial shipping activity, which in turn, can be linked to global economic growth. As a corollary, we
conclude that ambient noise levels can be directly related to global economic conditions. We provide
experimental evidence supporting this theory and discuss its implications for predicting future noise levels
based on global economic trends.