Underwater sound is very important to most fishes and invertebrates. Underwater sounds from both natural and human sources can have adverse effects upon aquatic animals, and especially fishes, and invertebrates. It is important to examine the effects of sound upon them, and especially the effects of sounds derived from human sources (anthropogenic sounds). It may be possible to introduce protective regulations to reduce their effects. Fishes and invertebrates can detect underwater sounds, and they use sound to obtain key information about the environment around them. They can also make sounds themselves, especially during their spawning. Sounds travel rapidly over great distances in water and can provide detailed information to these animals on the presence of prey, predators, and related species, while the overall acoustic scene provides them with key information about their environment. Anthropogenic sounds can be very harmful, and it is therefore important to deal with them. A succession of reports and scientific papers have emphasised the risks to these animals from exposure to man-made sounds or noise and will be mentioned in this paper, which also deals with the Criteria and Metrics for assessing the effects of underwater sound on fishes and invertebrates. Show less

The main diet of baleen whales is krill in the Arctic, Antarctic and during migrations in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Hence, the aim of this paper is to quantify the global importance of the krill to baleen whale component of the pelagic food web and possible feedback loops. That was undertaken by comparing the results of Ecopath Models in the Antarctic and Arctic Oceans and to migration areas in the North Atlantic and Alaska, was well as the large Seamount area from the Antarctic and Arctic. Biological production transfer is the essential component of the prey to predator pelagic food web, which maintains the production of predators. The importance of sustaining global baleen whale migrations is to support ecosystem production by whale defecation contribution to nutrient recycling. It is important to sustain krill and fish abundance in whale migration feeding areas using ecosystem-based fishery management (EBFM) fishing rates. It was shown by the literature that migrations tended to followed deep-sea seamounts, and baleen whale defecation and nutrient cycling at seamounts led to the effects of nutrient upwelling by deep sea currents at seamounts. Hence, it is suggested seamounts be protected as important marine ecosystems. Therefore, those processes indicate sustaining krill and whale abundance is likely to support global marine ecosystem stability in open ocean migration areas. Show less