SpaceX has recently purchased their new floating oil rigs to transform them it into offshore spaceport. One of the potential drawbacks, that people might miss, is impact of sound waves during the rocket launches on marine life. Enormous levels of noise during spacecraft launch are typically up to 180db. Remind you that noise levels in our daily life are about 30db (whispering) to 110db (disco close to a speaker). Levels above 150db are physically harming organic tissues, while 180db is x1000 higher power due to logarithmic scaling. Speed of sound propagation in water is about 3 times higher than in the air (~1,480 vs 343 meters per second). All this means that space launches are not only going to stress and harm animal habitat but expected to be lethal for underwater life over a wide area. Obviously this is not as close as underwater nuke explosions that were banned at 1963, but considering the persistence of events and times that we live in, something must be done here…
Proposal is use of Acoustic Fish Deterrents to withdraw as much marine life as possible from the location and time of launch. There are two main types of acoustic waves used as deterrents – continuous and pulsed. Based on studies, pulsed sound waves are not very much efficient for use for fish withdrawal, but continuous wave can be used for this cause. The signal should start at the location and according to the rocket launch schedule with growing amplitude and act effectively as a moving wall, distancing and saving the marine life.
Concepton 