We can’t see all the ways that climate change affects life underwater, but we can listen for it. “All marine animals use sound as their primary sense,” Kate Stafford explains. As an oceanographer, Stafford has devoted her career to studying the impact of climate change on the Arctic’s creatures through passive acoustic monitoring, and she’s unearthed some surprising finds. Ships and rigs which dig up natural resources create disturbances which affect the migratory movements of animals, effectively reshaping the map of the ocean for those who live in it. This is especially true for bowhead whales, who live for up to 200 years. “Their environments are changing rapidly, making it harder for them to adapt,” Stafford says. Having spent the past decade collecting their vocal recordings and learning more about this species, her work is critical to conservation in the Arctic. Footage by Kate Stafford from the School of Oceanography at the University of Washington was used in the creation of this film.