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Sounds in the Ocean: Environmental and Anthropogenic

Listen to exemplar sound clips of marine sounds, taken from passive acoustic recorders. We have compiled these sounds to provide examples of the variety and breadth of natural and man-made sounds.

New England/Mid-Atlantic

Table of Contents

Introduction

Underwater sounds provide information about the surrounding environment—or soundscape—such as what marine animals are present or what human activities are taking place. Many marine animals rely on sound for survival. They depend on unique adaptations to communicate, locate food, navigate underwater, and/or understand their environment. Sounds are particularly useful for communication because they can be used to convey a great deal of information quickly and over long distances. Changes in the rate, pitch, and/or structure of sounds communicate different messages.

Passive Acoustic recorders can be towed behind a ship, mounted on mobile ocean-going robots, or placed at specific underwater sites and left out for days, months, or even years, capturing that location’s soundscape until the recorder is retrieved. Scientists in the Northeast's Passive Acoustic Research Group and their colleagues have compiled these sounds to provide examples of the variety and breadth of animal sounds.

Note: You can click on any of the photos and spectrograms on this page to view and/or save the full image. Some sounds (in particular from mysticetes/baleen whales) are very low frequency, and you may need high-quality speakers to hear the recording.

How to Read a Spectrogram

A spectrogram is a visual way to display sound. The frequency of the sound is labeled on the vertical or y-axis. Frequency is most often measured in hertz (Hz) or kilohertz (kHz). Time is shown along the bottom of the graph (the x-axis). Time here is measured in minutes and seconds, in the format mm:ss. The loudness of a sound can be seen by the color scale of the sound in the spectrogram, with lighter colors implying louder sounds.

Environmental Sounds

Summary: Many environmental events make non-biological sounds, such as the low-frequency rumbling of a thunderstorm or the cracking and wailing of singing ice as ice sheets slide against each other and break apart.

Earthquake

Play earthquake audio

Image
Black and white map of a region of Caribbean islands showing an earthquake epicenter and surrounding hydrophone locations.
Image
Spectrogram of rumbling sounds produced by an earthquake with time on the x-axis and frequency on the y-axis.

Ice Calving

Play ice calving audio

Image
Large chunk of ice breaking off from a glacier and falling into the icy water.
Image
Spectrogram of sounds produced by ice calving from a glacier with time on the x-axis and frequency on the y-axis.

Ice Singing

Play ice singing audio

Image
Expanse of ocean covering in broken sheets of ice.
Image
Spectrogram of sounds produced by singing ice with time on the x-axis and frequency on the y-axis.

Quiet Ocean

Play quiet ocean audio

Image
Calm blue ocean.
Image
Spectrogram of the lack of sound in a quiet ocean environment with time on the x-axis and frequency on the y-axis.

Rain

Play rain audio

Image
Gif showing satellite view of moving storm clouds.
Image
Spectrogram of rain sounds with time on the x-axis and frequency on the y-axis.

Soundscape

Play soundscape audio

Image
This conceptual illustration shows images of human, marine animal, and environmental sources of sound and approximately proportional sound waves. Soundscapes include sounds made by humans (anthropogenic; orange sound waves), the environment (natural sounds; green sound waves), and by biological sources (animals: marine mammal, fish, and invertebrates; blue sound waves).
Image
Spectrogram of snapping shrimp and fish chorusing with time on the x-axis and frequency on the y-axis.

Thunderstorm

Play thunderstorm audio

Image
Thunderstorm with lightning over land and body of water.
Image
Spectrogram of thunder during a thunderstorm with time on the x-axis and frequency on the y-axis.

Anthropogenic  (Human-Made) Sounds

Summary: Human activity in and around the ocean makes a variety of sounds, such as pinging from echosounders or low-frequency vessel noise from motorized boats and ships. Some anthropogenic sounds can be disruptive or harmful to marine life.

Echosounder

Play echosounder audio

Image
Graphic of NOAA ship on open ocean with echosounder beams emanating from the hull of the ship scanning the seafloor.
Image
Spectrogram of the pinging sound produced by an echosounder with time on the x-axis and frequency on the y-axis.

Pile Driving (Offshore Wind Energy Construction)

Play pile driving audio

Image
Offshore rig with crane assembling a large wind turbine that required pile driving for construction.
Image
Spectrogram of sounds produced by pile driving activity with time on the x-axis and frequency on the y-axis.

Seismic (Oil & Gas)

Play seismic audio

Image
Offshore seismic drilling rig.
Image
Spectrogram of pulses from seismic activity with time on the x-axis and frequency on the y-axis.

Small Vessel

Play small vessel audio

Image
Green fishing boat on the ocean with another fishing boat in the distance behind it.
Image
Spectrogram of the sound produced by a passing small vessel with time on the x-axis and frequency on the y-axis.

Large Vessel

Play large vessel audio

Image
Large tanker ship transiting through the water with a visible wake.
Image
Spectrogram of the sound produced by a passing large vessel with time on the x-axis and frequency on the y-axis.

Citation Examples

How to Credit a File From This Page

Sound File Citation

  1. (Government Agency)
  2. (Group/Organization)
  3. (Collection/Publication Date)
  4. (Title of Sound File)
  5. (Website URL)

Example:

NOAA [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration]. Passive Acoustics Group. 2021.  Stfr_Multisound_NOAA_PAGroup_01.  https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/science-data/sounds-ocean

Image/Spectrogram Citation

  1. (Government Agency)
  2. (Group/Organization)
  3. (Lower Levels of Credit, if known)
  4. (Collection/Publication Date)
  5. (Title of Sound File)
  6. (Website URL)

Example:

NOAA [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration]. Passive Acoustics Group. 2021. Dele_NOAA_04. https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/science-data/sounds-ocean

More Information

More Information

Last updated by Northeast Fisheries Science Center on 06/23/2023

Acoustics