All those container ships and fishing vessels are only generating noise in the first place because there's a consumer downstream paying them to do so. By simply opting to purchase more goods locally, Fournet notes, everyday people can play at least a small part in reducing their overall contribution to ocean noise. In other words, a farmer's market apple might not just taste better; it's better for whales too. "In this case, sure, humans are the problem," Fournet adds. "Humans in this case are also the solution. We created this problem, but we do have the capacity to fix it."

Before Michelle Fournet moved to Alaska on a whim in her early twenties, she'd never seen a whale. She took a job on a whale watching boat and, each day she was out on the water, gazed at the grand shapes moving under the surface. For her entire life, she realized, the natural world had been out there, and she'd been missing it. "I didn't even know I was bereft," she recalls. Later, as a graduate student in marine biology, Fournet wondered what else she was missing.