Data from: Simulated seal scarer sounds scare porpoises, but not seals: species-specific responses to 12 kHz deterrence sounds ...

• Main Authors: Mikkelsen, Lonnie, Hermannsen, Line, Beedholm, Kristian, Madsen, Peter Teglberg, Tougaard, Jakob
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2017
• Subjects: Pile driving; Harbour Porpoise; seal scarer; Acoustic harassment devices; Harbour seal; Harbour porpoise; harbour seal
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.8jh04; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.8jh04

Acoustic harassment devices (AHD) or ‘seal scarers’ are used extensively, not only to deter seals from fisheries, but also as mitigation tools to deter marine mammals from potentially harmful sound sources, such as offshore pile driving. To test the effectiveness of AHDs, we conducted two studies with similar experimental set-ups on two key species: harbour porpoises and harbour seals. We exposed animals to 500 ms tone bursts at 12 kHz simulating that of an AHD (Lofitech), but with reduced output levels (source peak-to-peak level of 165 dB re 1 µPa). Animals were localized with a theodolite before, during and after sound exposures. In total, 12 sound exposures were conducted to porpoises and 13 exposures to seals. Porpoises were found to exhibit avoidance reactions out to ranges of 525 m from the sound source. Contrary to this, seal observations increased during sound exposure within 100 m of the loudspeaker. We thereby demonstrate that porpoises and seals respond very differently to AHD sounds. This has ... : PorpoiseDataSheet 1: Observation data from the harbour porpoise study at Helgenæs. Sheet 2: Exposure timesSealDataSheet 1: Observation data from the seal study at Anholt. Sheet 2: Exposure timesAnholt_SoundfilesExamples of the signals (first 5 from each trial) recorded on each of the four acoustic recording stations at Anholt, from a subset of the sound trials (trial number: 9,10,14,17,18). Start times of sound exposures can be found in the seal observation excel file. Sound files are named as such: stationname_distance_yyyyymmdd_hhmmssAnholt.zipHelgenaes_SoundfilesExamples of the signals (first 5 from each trial) recorded on each of the four acoustic recording stations at Helgenaes, from a subset of the sound trials (trial number: 9,11-15). Start times of sound exposures can be found in the porpoise observation excel file. Sound files are named as such: stationname_distance_yyyyymmdd_hhmmssHelgenaes.zip ...