Anthropogenic noise can impact cetaceans, leading to masking, stress, and auditory damage, among other effects. Recent studies have emphasized the need to understand these impacts on marine organisms, for which cetaceans may be used as ecological models. However, it is unclear whether public policy-making in the countries that present the same concern. We used the Brazilian environmental licensing legislation as a case study to investigate whether governments have addressed the scientific advances on the effects of anthropogenic noise on cetaceans. The study was based on a systematic review of the literature on the impacts of anthropogenic noise on cetaceans, and a survey of the environmental licensing reports related to the construction of shipping facilities and seismic activity. None of these reports evaluated the potential impacts on cetacean acoustics, and 59.6% were based solely on a review of the literature. Our results highlight the importance of measuring the acoustic variables of the noise produced by human activities. We conclude that governments should include the recent scientific advances on the effects of anthropogenic noise on cetaceans in their environmental legislation and licensing requirements.

人为噪音会影响鲸类动物，导致掩蔽、压力和听觉损伤，以及其他影响。最近的研究强调需要了解这些对海洋生物的影响，鲸类可能被用作生态模型。然而，目前尚不清楚是否存在同样关注的国家的公共政策制定。我们使用巴西环境许可立法作为案例研究，以调查政府是否已经解决了人为噪声对鲸类动物影响的科学进步。该研究基于对人为噪声对鲸类影响的文献的系统审查，以及对与航运设施建设和地震活动相关的环境许可报告的调查。这些报告都没有评估对鲸类声学的潜在影响，59.6% 的报告仅基于对文献的回顾。我们的结果强调了测量人类活动产生的噪声的声学变量的重要性。我们得出的结论是，政府应在其环境立法和许可要求中纳入有关人为噪声对鲸类动物影响的最新科学进展。