Ocean noise could harm squid and other cephalopods

Science : Research has indicated that sonar and other anthropogenic sounds can damage a wide spectrum of ocean fauna, but the effect of such sound on cephalopods was unknown. Now Michel André of the Technical University of Catalonia in Spain and colleagues have been studying the effect of high-decibel, low-frequency sound on wild cephalopods held in laboratory aquariums, and discovered that all of the animals exposed to the noise suffered severe damage to their statocysts (sound-detecting structures behind the cephalopod eye). Damage ranged from crumpled or displaced sensory cells to large lesions. More damage appeared to develop as post-exposure times increased. Peter Madsen at Aarhus University in Denmark expresses some skepticism about the results, partly because the control animals used by the researchers were not housed in an aquarium as the experimental animals were, which leaves open the possibility that captivity caused or contributed to the sensory damage in the latter group. T. Aran Mooney at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts questions how André and his team measured the animals’ exposure to noise, but also says their research is “a good first step” in determining whether anthropogenic noise harms cephalopods.