Noise Pollution

Forget global warming, air pollution and all the other environmental concerns. There is a new one to be concerned with and it's not one the typical person would think of. It's noise pollution in the world's oceans.
Specifically, the oceans have too much background noise from military sonar blasts and overcrowded commercial shipping lanes that are interfering with sea life. Hearing is the main sense for all marine life, which uses sound for navigation and communication. Some scientists now believe that the spreading ocean noise pollution is blinding marine life, affecting feeding, breeding and other crucial activities.
In a sense, when the noise in the sea is too loud, the fish are confused and blinded. Having said that, it is impossible to measure sound disruption over the entire world ocean system. the information those scientists have gathered has been localized to high traffic areas that may not be representative of the oceans as a whole.
Also, underwater sounds seem to affect some marine animals more than others or to affect them in different ways. And can commercial shipping or the military ever change their ways and still do their jobs adequately? But researchers suspect that dumping so many new and loud sounds into the oceans is a recipe for disaster. It supposedly causes "masking", the condition in which the new noises drown out the natural ocean communications that sea life have always used. So will we have to now treat sea noise pollution as we do pollution on land, water and the atmosphere? It's something to think about.