oceanography research paper

Amparo brijil

Kimberly miller oceanography

December 5, 2018

oceanography current event project I read an article by Sarah gibbons (November 30 2018) “how whales and dolphins may be

harmed by new seismic airgun approval” retrieved from http://www.nationalgeographic.com. In

this article it states how conservationist are worries about marine life, particular right whales a

species thats on the verge of extinction being effected by seismic aigret to search for oil and gas

deposits buried in the sea floor. The reason conservationist are concerned about this is due to the

threat of marine mammals such as whales and dolphins using their sound for communicating ,

feeding or mating may be impacted by this blast. The studies show that the blast can also harm

small marine life members such as zooplankton by decreasing them about 64 percent with in

4,000 feet of the blast. A few topics that I learned from oceanography have helped me

understand this article fully and how it really can effects dolphins, whales, and zooplankton. With

out learning how important zooplankton are in the food chain especially for whales such as the

right whales which have different ways of feeding compared to other whales. Being apart of the

baleen category which means that they open their mouth wide to fill with water and spit the

water out of the side of their mouth in order to keep krill or planktons such as zooplankton.

Another thing I have learned from ch. 14 is how whales and dolphins use echolocation and how

its important for them in many ways such as communicating and feeding. The way echolocation

helps them with feeding is during mucky water when its hard to see they can use echolocation in

order to see the shape of their pray through the water. I can see how this blast can be bad and

effect these marine mammals especially when echolocation is a main source for many to use in

lots of ways. Another thing I learned from ch. 2 about petroleum oil spills and gas hydrates is I

can see this blast effecting marine life is that its main purpose is to search for gas and oil deposits

and as I learned in oceanography class this can lead to oil spills caused by offshore ocean

draining . learning and understanding different topics from my class has help me understand why

this blast isn’t a good idea and why the conversationist are worried.