The Sound of One Shrimp Snapping - The New York Times

The Sound of One Shrimp Snapping - The New York Times

The silence of the shrimps

Whales are singing lower, King penguins are being muffled by the wind and snapping shrimp — one of the loudest creatures in the ocean — are losing the will to snap. Around the world, ecologists are documenting how climate change is altering the soundscape of the natural world. For example, as seawater soaks in carbon and gets more acidic, snapping shrimp — which produce their ear-popping noises to stun prey — seem to be snapping less. “It’s not that ocean acidification completely takes away their ability to make loud snaps,” says marine biologist Ivan Nagelkerken. “They can still do that but essentially don’t want to do that any more.”

New York Times | 6 min read