Seal Bomb Noise as a Potential Threat to Monterey Bay Harbor Porpoise

Simonis, Anne E.; Forney, Karin A.; Rankin, Shannon; Ryan, John P.; Zhang, Yanwu; DeVogelaere, Andrew; Joseph, John E.; Margolina, Tetyana; Krumpel, Anna; Baumann‐Pickering, Simone

doi:10.3389/fmars.2020.00142

Cited by 12 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…While acute noise sources have received attention due to dramatic impacts on marine mammals observed in some regions, chronic noise is recognized as a global issue that must be addressed regionally through ecosystembased management (Hatch et al, 2016). Within MBNMS, noise from seal bombs-explosives used in fishing operations with the goal of deterring interference in fishing operations by sea lions, seals, and dolphins-has been a focal research topic (Simonis et al, 2020). PAM revealed occurrence patterns, with up to 88 explosions per hour, while modeling of acoustic transmission revealed the far reach of noise from individual explosions across tens of kilometers.…”

Section: Animal Taggingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrating Biodiversity and Environmental Observations in Support of National Marine Sanctuary and Large Marine Ecosystem Assessments

Ruhl¹,

Mbari²,

Brown³

et al. 2021

Oceanog

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Species and habitats are the subjects of legislation that mandates reporting of information on ecosystem conditions. Improvements in sensors, sampling platforms, information systems, and collaborations among experts and information users now enables more effective and up-to-date information to meet regional and national needs. Specifically, advances in environmental DNA (eDNA)-based assessments of biodiversity, community science data, various underwater imaging devices, and environmental, behavioral, and physiology observations from animal telemetry provide new opportunities to address multiple requirements for reporting status and trends, including insights into life in the deep ocean. Passive and active acoustic sensors help monitor marine life, boat traffic, and noise pollution. Satellites provide repeated, frequent, and long-term records of many relevant variables from global to local scales and, when combined with numerical computer simulations, allow planning for future scenarios. Metadata standards facilitate the transfer of data from machine to machine, thus streamlining assessments and forecasting and providing knowledge directly to the public. The Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON) facilitates this exchange of information on life in the sea. The collaborative efforts of the Central and Northern California Ocean Observing System (CeNCOOS) of the US Integrated Ocean Observing System and its partners provide an example of a regional MBON process for information delivery. This includes linking policy and management needs, prioritizing observing data from various platforms and methods, streamlining data handling practices, and delivery of information for management such as for the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary and the California Current Large Marine Ecosystem, with iterative process adaptation.

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Section: Animal Taggingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrating Biodiversity and Environmental Observations in Support of National Marine Sanctuary and Large Marine Ecosystem Assessments

Ruhl¹,

Mbari²,

Brown³

et al. 2021

Oceanog

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“…For convolutional neural network models, limited ground truth training data may reduce the algorithm's accuracy (Soekhoe et al, 2016;Barbedo, 2018), and the detection rate is susceptible to spatial-temporal variation (Fang et al, 2019). In addition, this traditional "deploy-retrieve-analyze" pattern for PAM could not provide immediate information, which can be necessary to timely protect porpoises from exposure to strong ambient noise caused by anthropogenic construction or underwater blasting, and could cause temporary hearing damage to the porpoises (Eva and Stephen, 2018;Eva et al, 2019;Simonis et al, 2020;Benhemma-Le Gall et al, 2021). Under these conditions, real-time detection could play a vital role in the conservation of the animal.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A real-time passive acoustic monitoring system to detect Yangtze finless porpoise clicks in Ganjiang River, China

Qiu

Lei

et al. 2022

Front. Mar. Sci.

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Phocoenidae live in fresh, coastal waters where they often share a significant portion of their habitat with humans. As a result, local activities (e.g., coastal fisheries and shipments) cause underwater noise pollution and threaten their ecosystem. To better conserve the habitat of porpoises, we aimed to study their activities in these waters by recording their echolocation clicks using a passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) system. However, because the off-line PAM instruments were often used in the past that need to be periodically deployed and recovered, data acquisition is typically obtained and analyzed in batches, rather than in real-time. A real-time PAM detection system would help minimize the impact of underwater noise on approaching porpoises. Furthermore, issues of bad quality data-with gaps due to loss or damage of the off-line PAM instruments-could be avoided with a real-time detection system. Therefore, in this study, we developed the Real-time Porpoise Click Detector-II (RPCD-II), equipped with a digital hydrophone, main memory (2 TB storage), a central processing unit, and a wireless transmission module. We deployed the RPCD-II under a docked fishing vessel at the Ganjiang River in Yangzi Zhou Town Fisheries Village, Nanchang City (8-9 December 2021), where it recorded signals of Yangtze finless porpoise and produced a real-time report. To validate the results of RPCD-II, another underwater sound recorder, the SoundTrap 300HF (ST), was also set up (as a control device) under the docked fishing vessel. Both devices recorded consistent results of 9330 clicks, further demonstrating RPCD-II's ability for the real-time detection of Yangtze finless porpoise in the field.

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“…The ways that anthropogenic noise can affect marine mammals include interference with communication (masking), behavioral disturbance such as avoidance of key habitat areas essential to fitness and survival, induction of chronic or acute stress, and in severe cases physiological damage (Hatch et al, 2008(Hatch et al, , 2012Rolland et al, 2012;Gedamke et al, 2016;Erbe et al, 2019;Simonis et al, 2020a). Within MBNMS, the threat posed by fishery explosions to acoustically sensitive harbor porpoise has been considered (Simonis et al, 2020b). In this contribution, we examine changes in ocean noise within MBNMS resulting from pandemic-induced reductions in maritime shipping activity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reduction of Low-Frequency Vessel Noise in Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary During the COVID-19 Pandemic

et al. 2021

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Low-frequency sound from large vessels is a major, global source of ocean noise that can interfere with acoustic communication for a variety of marine animals. Changes in vessel activity provide opportunities to quantify relationships between vessel traffic levels and soundscape conditions in biologically important habitats. Using continuous deep-sea (890 m) recordings acquired ∼20 km (closest point of approach) from offshore shipping lanes, we observed reduction of low-frequency noise within Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary (California, United States) associated with changes in vessel traffic during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Acoustic modeling shows that the recording site receives low-frequency vessel noise primarily from the regional shipping lanes rather than via the Sound Fixing and Ranging (SOFAR) channel. Monthly geometric means and percentiles of spectrum levels in the one-third octave band centered at 63 Hz during 2020 were compared with those from the same months of 2018–2019. Spectrum levels were persistently and significantly lower during February through July 2020, although a partial rebound in ambient noise levels was indicated by July. Mean spectrum levels during 2020 were more than 1 dB re 1 μPa2 Hz–1 below those of a previous year during 4 months. The lowest spectrum levels, in June 2020, were as much as 1.9 (mean) and 2.4 (25% exceedance level) dB re 1 μPa2 Hz–1 below levels of previous years. Spectrum levels during 2020 were significantly correlated with large-vessel total gross tonnage derived from economic data, summed across all California ports (r = 0.81, p < 0.05; adjusted r2 = 0.58). They were more highly correlated with regional presence of large vessels, quantified from Automatic Identification System (AIS) vessel tracking data weighted according to vessel speed and modeled acoustic transmission loss (r = 0.92, p < 0.01; adjusted r2 = 0.81). Within the 3-year study period, February–June 2020 exhibited persistently quiet low-frequency noise and anomalously low statewide port activity and regional large-vessel presence. The results illustrate the ephemeral nature of noise pollution by documenting how it responds rapidly to changes in offshore large-vessel traffic, and how this anthropogenic imprint reaches habitat remote from major ports and shipping lanes.

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Seal Bomb Noise as a Potential Threat to Monterey Bay Harbor Porpoise

Cited by 12 publications

References 56 publications

Integrating Biodiversity and Environmental Observations in Support of National Marine Sanctuary and Large Marine Ecosystem Assessments

Integrating Biodiversity and Environmental Observations in Support of National Marine Sanctuary and Large Marine Ecosystem Assessments

A real-time passive acoustic monitoring system to detect Yangtze finless porpoise clicks in Ganjiang River, China

Reduction of Low-Frequency Vessel Noise in Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary During the COVID-19 Pandemic

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