COVID: How the pandemic may have helped whales off California’s coast

Monterey Herald –

During the first six months of the pandemic, researchers with undersea microphones detected a dramatic drop in the levels of underwater noise that can be harmful to whales, dolphins and other marine life. As shipping traffic dropped by about 40% in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary — a rich expanse of ocean that stretches across 270 miles from the Marin Headlands to Hearst Castle — so too did the underwater noise there, by about 40%.