UNDER WATER NOISE PROBLEM

PALMA
UNDER the waves of the Bay of Palma, the noise levels are as high as in the Straits of Gibraltar and the Canaries, according to the first sonar noise pollution study carried out in area.

The “noise pollution map”, the first of its kind to have been carried out in the Balearics, was presented in Palma yesterday by the crew of La Caixa's survey yacht Ibero which spent the whole of August monitoring sonar noise in the Bay of Palma and one of the conclusions was that noise contamination levels in the bay are as high as off Gibraltar and the Canary Islands.

Project co-ordinator Josep Maria Alonso said that the primary reason for the high levels of noise is the “intense” merchant and commercial shipping activity, as well as the high level of recreational activity during the summer season.

The Bay of Palma study is part of La Caixa's save-the-sea campaign and the crew of Ibero also discovered that there is a large population of sea mammals living, some in danger, in the Bay.

The sonar noise investigation, which runs in parrallell with La caixa's mobile marine education centre which arrived in Palma yesterday, will move to Minorca until the end of this month.

The investigators want to examine at depth what the consequences of high levels of noise contamination have on marine life and fauna in the area in the various different areas of Balearic waters which are rich in sea mammals which communicate and co-ordinate themselves by sonar.

The study has also found that the water of the south of Cabrera are “the quietest” and the Josep Maria Alonso praised the strict controls on recreation vessels in Cabrera waters.