I completely agree, filling oceans/seas with noise seems like a good recipe to further stress marine ecosystems

To be completely frank, we haven't done anything to stop the rise of water temperature and acidification from CO2 absorption that prevent fish from reproducing, along with continuing overfishing. Most of these ecosystems will be dead from food chain collapse in a decade or two.

I suppose the good news is that jellyfish that will step in to fill the niche don't care about sound.

they will adapt like they always did

Yes, the numbers in the ecosystem will shift. Some to zero. That's an ecosystem adapting. Is it good?

Yeah dinosaurs adapted into chicken.

Overfishing and pollution will wipe out most of the remaining ocean fish in the next couple decades if nothing is done about it. We're on track to destroy 99% or more of the species of fish and large animals in our oceans.

Maybe state funding for privateering navies given license to sink illegal fishing boats would be a good start. Trawling and other wildly destructive practices funded by various south asian countries are doing incalculable harm all over the world. Sink on sight is an appropriate policy.

Humanity has to get their shit together, or jellyfish will be all that's left.

You also don't want to find out the hard way that e.g. your new modem enrages sealions or something.

For underwater acoustic systems there is a well understood and effective marine mammal mitigation process that’s followed. Basically, slowly stepping up in power. Not sure if they’re employing that here but if it involves NATO, I would expect that’s being employed

I'd like to know more about this process. But ultimately, it can only be detrimental to sealife to emit noise into the marine environment.

Imagine someone set up a radio or a noisy machine somewhere in your own vicinity and you had no choice but to listen to it (even at a low volume) all day and night, perhaps for the rest of your life. Tests might or might not show that you were stressed, but you most certainly would be.

Perhaps I am biased from regular snorkelling and enjoying being immersed n a different natural world, and for sure I do have tree-hugger tendencies. But I find it extremely arrogant that our species thinks it's acceptable to inject noise pollution into an environment inhabitated by thousands of other species.

Not to get too deep in the underwater weeds here but sound propagation underwater is not omnidirectional like how sound propagates above water. And I’m not sure how true that is either

All that to say, I certainly understand the concern. But I would personally have to see evidence of harm

The Precautionary Principle calls for proof of safety, not proof of harm. Harm is assumed unless proven otherwise.

I assume that the Precautionary Principle is harmful and will refuse to accept it until it has been proven safe.

> Imagine someone set up a radio or a noisy machine somewhere in your own vicinity and you had no choice but to listen to it (even at a low volume) all day and night, perhaps for the rest of your life. Tests might or might not show that you were stressed, but you most certainly would be.

Otoh, some people purposefully setup noise machines to improve sleep and reduce stress. Sometimes a small amount of noise is a good thing.

"Imagine someone set up a radio or a noisy machine somewhere in your own vicinity and you had no choice but to listen to it", you mean like a mosque :-D

Or church bells.

> a well understood and effective marine mammal mitigation process that’s followed. Basically, slowly stepping up in power.

Uhh... I don't consider myself an eco-hippie, but that "mitigation" sounds like a euphemism or sinister "mitigation of negative PR", rather than actually literally doing less damage.

Like: "Gradually make things worse so that animals flee on their own, and if they die of starvation at least it's somewhere else so it won't make the local news with kids finding corpses on the beach."

"but if it involves NATO, I would expect that’s being employed"

Why would that be your expectation?