According to this article over at Deans World

whales are having a hard time with their love life.

"But Clark and other scientists are concerned that the growing "acoustic smog" in the world's oceans, and particularly the waters near popular migration and feeding routes, is interfering with whales' ability to communicate with songs.

"A blue whale, which lives 100 years, that was born in 1940, today has had his acoustic bubble shrunken from 1,000 miles to 100 miles because of noise pollution," said Clark. "The noise pollution is estimated to be at the industrial noise level where OSHA would require us to wear headphones."

Noise pollution is doubling every decade in an urbanized marine environment, Clark claims, mostly due to shipping traffic."

OK, I'm sure some marine engineer can explain this- since about WWII we've gone from diesal engines to turbines (much quieter) and we haven't been doing a massive amount of depth charging lately, either(besides if a Blue Whale was born in the '40s he'd be deaf, wouldn't he?). So there are more ships, they're larger, move faster, and are quieter than their forebears.

Why is this a problem now? Can't the great whales cope with change ( their brains are bigger than a passenger van)? Isn't evolution what Liberals celibrate in school?