Paper short abstract:

As the global oceans become louder, this paper explores how underwater noise pollution is constructed by the state, the scientific body, and the public through new relationships with technology, marine animals, and analogous beings. How well can humans related to the sonic lives of other beings?

Paper long abstract:

As human activity continues to intensify, the underwater world is becoming louder. Globally, the sounds from international shipping, energy exploration, and coastal development are stressing the marine environment (Solan and Whitely 2016). To combat this, state regulation agencies and international treaties have constructed the phenomenon of "underwater noise pollution." This paper outlines the historically shifting definitions and regulations of underwater noise through our changing relationships with technology, sea creatures, and the marine environment. Drawing from STS, multispecies ethnography, and maritime anthropology, this paper focuses on key points in the construction of underwater noise by the state, the scientific body, and the public. Using athwart theory (Helmreich 2009, 2016) and ANT (Latour 2005), this paper explores how new technologies have allowed humans increased access to the marine soundscape and have allowed for more complex relationships with underwater noise and other listeners. Using new technologies, the scientific and governmental bodies have begun to recognise the sonic lives sea creatures through empathy, sympathy, charisma, and analogy. Often unruly, marine animals are replaced by increasingly sophisticated models in the scientific literature and it is through relationships with these analogous beings that policy is formed. The intersection of humans, marine biota, and analogous beings raise deep anthropological questions multispecies relatedness and responsibility.