Data from: Vessel noise prior to pile driving at offshore windfarm sites deters harbour porpoises from potential injury zones ...

• Main Author: Benhemma-Le Gall, Aude
• Format: Software
• Language: unknown
• Published: Zenodo 2023
• Subjects: offshore windfarm; Cumulative effects; underwater noise; anthropogenic disturbance; environmental impact assessment; Passive Acoustic Monitoring; Harbour porpoise
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7308542; https://zenodo.org/record/7308542

Efforts to meet climate change targets are resulting in rapid and global expansion of offshore windfarms. In many regions, development areas are also used by protected marine mammals, requiring the assessment and mitigation of any risk of injury during construction and operation. For small cetaceans such as the harbour porpoise, there is particular concern over the risk of injury from impulsive noise should individuals remain within near-field injury zones during the installation of pile driven turbine foundations. Currently, this risk is assessed by comparing predicted noise levels at the start of piling with baseline estimates of animal density, which are, in turn, based on data collected at least one year earlier. However, vessel-based preparation work immediately prior to piling may displace animals, thus reducing any risk of injury when pile-driving begins. We investigated the effects of pre-piling activities on local soundscapes and harbour porpoise occurrence during the construction of two deep-water ... : R can be used to open and run the R scripts and the R project. The .txt files can be opened with Notepad but can also be called directly in R using the R scripts. Funding provided by: University of Aberdeen Crossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000882 Award Number: Funding provided by: Marine Scotland Science* Crossref Funder Registry ID: Award Number: Funding provided by: Beatrice Offshore Windfarm Limited* Crossref Funder Registry ID: Award Number: Funding provided by: Moray Offshore Windfarm (East) Limited* Crossref Funder Registry ID: Award Number: ...