Lack of behavioural responses of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) indicate limited effectiveness of sonar mitigation
Exposure to underwater sound can cause permanent hearing loss and other physiological effects in marine animals. To reduce this risk, naval sonars are sometimes gradually increased in intensity at the start of transmission (?ramp-up'). Here, we conducted experiments in which tagged humpback wha...
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ftuniveiffel:oai:HAL:hal-02915534v1 2024-01-07T09:42:22+01:00 Lack of behavioural responses of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) indicate limited effectiveness of sonar mitigation Wensveen, Paul J. Kvadsheim, Petter H. Lam, Frans-Peter A. Benda-Beckmann, Alexander M. Sivle, Lise D. Visser, Fleur Cure, Charlotte Tyack, Peter L. Miller, Patrick J. O. University of St Andrews Scotland Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI) The Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) Institute of Marine Research Bergen (IMR) University of Bergen (UiB) Universiteit Leiden = Leiden University Unité Mixte de Recherche en Acoustique Environnementale (UMRAE) Université de Lyon-Centre d'Etudes et d'Expertise sur les Risques, l'Environnement, la Mobilité et l'Aménagement (Cerema)-Université Gustave Eiffel 2017-01-01 https://hal.science/hal-02915534 doi:10.242/jeb.161232 en eng HAL CCSD The Company of Biologists info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.242/jeb.161232 hal-02915534 https://hal.science/hal-02915534 doi:10.242/jeb.161232 ISSN: 0022-0949 EISSN: 1477-9145 Journal of Experimental Biology https://hal.science/hal-02915534 Journal of Experimental Biology, 2017, 220 (22), pp.4150--4161. ⟨10.242/jeb.161232⟩ ACLI ANTHROPOGENIC NOISE BALEEN WHALE BEHAVIOURAL RESPONSE HEARING LOSS NAVAL SONAR RAMP-UP CEREMA IMPACT INTERNATIONAL FAUNE AUDITION RISQUE [SDE]Environmental Sciences info:eu-repo/semantics/article Journal articles 2017 ftuniveiffel 2023-12-09T22:27:21Z Exposure to underwater sound can cause permanent hearing loss and other physiological effects in marine animals. To reduce this risk, naval sonars are sometimes gradually increased in intensity at the start of transmission (?ramp-up'). Here, we conducted experiments in which tagged humpback whales were approached with a ship to test whether a sonar operation preceded by ramp-up reduced three risk indicators - maximum sound pressure level (SPLmax), cumulative sound exposure level (SELcum) and minimum source-whale range (Rmin) - compared with a sonar operation not preceded by ramp-up. Whales were subject to one no-sonar control session and either two successive ramp-up sessions (RampUp1, RampUp2) or a ramp-up session (RampUp1) and a full-power session (FullPower). Full-power sessions were conducted only twice; for other whales we used acoustic modelling that assumed transmission of the full-power sequence during their no-sonar control. Averaged over all whales, risk indicators in RampUp1 (n=11) differed significantly from those in FullPower (n=12) by ?3.0?dB (SPLmax), ?2.0?dB (SELcum) and +168?m (Rmin), but not significantly from those in RampUp2 (n=9). Only five whales in RampUp1, four whales in RampUp2 and none in FullPower or control sessions avoided the sound source. For RampUp1, we found statistically significant differences in risk indicators between whales that avoided the sonar and whales that did not: ?4.7?dB (SPLmax), ?3.4?dB (SELcum) and +291?m (Rmin). In contrast, for RampUp2, these differences were smaller and not significant. This study suggests that sonar ramp-up has a positive but limited mitigative effect for humpback whales overall, but that ramp-up can reduce the risk of harm more effectively in situations when animals are more responsive and likely to avoid the sonar, e.g. owing to novelty of the stimulus, when they are in the path of an approaching sonar ship. Article in Journal/Newspaper baleen whale Megaptera novaeangliae HAL Univ-Eiffel (Université Gustave Eiffel) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
HAL Univ-Eiffel (Université Gustave Eiffel) |
op_collection_id |
ftuniveiffel |
language |
English |
topic |
ACLI ANTHROPOGENIC NOISE BALEEN WHALE BEHAVIOURAL RESPONSE HEARING LOSS NAVAL SONAR RAMP-UP CEREMA IMPACT INTERNATIONAL FAUNE AUDITION RISQUE [SDE]Environmental Sciences |
spellingShingle |
ACLI ANTHROPOGENIC NOISE BALEEN WHALE BEHAVIOURAL RESPONSE HEARING LOSS NAVAL SONAR RAMP-UP CEREMA IMPACT INTERNATIONAL FAUNE AUDITION RISQUE [SDE]Environmental Sciences Wensveen, Paul J. Kvadsheim, Petter H. Lam, Frans-Peter A. Benda-Beckmann, Alexander M. Sivle, Lise D. Visser, Fleur Cure, Charlotte Tyack, Peter L. Miller, Patrick J. O. Lack of behavioural responses of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) indicate limited effectiveness of sonar mitigation |
topic_facet |
ACLI ANTHROPOGENIC NOISE BALEEN WHALE BEHAVIOURAL RESPONSE HEARING LOSS NAVAL SONAR RAMP-UP CEREMA IMPACT INTERNATIONAL FAUNE AUDITION RISQUE [SDE]Environmental Sciences |
description |
Exposure to underwater sound can cause permanent hearing loss and other physiological effects in marine animals. To reduce this risk, naval sonars are sometimes gradually increased in intensity at the start of transmission (?ramp-up'). Here, we conducted experiments in which tagged humpback whales were approached with a ship to test whether a sonar operation preceded by ramp-up reduced three risk indicators - maximum sound pressure level (SPLmax), cumulative sound exposure level (SELcum) and minimum source-whale range (Rmin) - compared with a sonar operation not preceded by ramp-up. Whales were subject to one no-sonar control session and either two successive ramp-up sessions (RampUp1, RampUp2) or a ramp-up session (RampUp1) and a full-power session (FullPower). Full-power sessions were conducted only twice; for other whales we used acoustic modelling that assumed transmission of the full-power sequence during their no-sonar control. Averaged over all whales, risk indicators in RampUp1 (n=11) differed significantly from those in FullPower (n=12) by ?3.0?dB (SPLmax), ?2.0?dB (SELcum) and +168?m (Rmin), but not significantly from those in RampUp2 (n=9). Only five whales in RampUp1, four whales in RampUp2 and none in FullPower or control sessions avoided the sound source. For RampUp1, we found statistically significant differences in risk indicators between whales that avoided the sonar and whales that did not: ?4.7?dB (SPLmax), ?3.4?dB (SELcum) and +291?m (Rmin). In contrast, for RampUp2, these differences were smaller and not significant. This study suggests that sonar ramp-up has a positive but limited mitigative effect for humpback whales overall, but that ramp-up can reduce the risk of harm more effectively in situations when animals are more responsive and likely to avoid the sonar, e.g. owing to novelty of the stimulus, when they are in the path of an approaching sonar ship. |
author2 |
University of St Andrews Scotland Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI) The Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) Institute of Marine Research Bergen (IMR) University of Bergen (UiB) Universiteit Leiden = Leiden University Unité Mixte de Recherche en Acoustique Environnementale (UMRAE) Université de Lyon-Centre d'Etudes et d'Expertise sur les Risques, l'Environnement, la Mobilité et l'Aménagement (Cerema)-Université Gustave Eiffel |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Wensveen, Paul J. Kvadsheim, Petter H. Lam, Frans-Peter A. Benda-Beckmann, Alexander M. Sivle, Lise D. Visser, Fleur Cure, Charlotte Tyack, Peter L. Miller, Patrick J. O. |
author_facet |
Wensveen, Paul J. Kvadsheim, Petter H. Lam, Frans-Peter A. Benda-Beckmann, Alexander M. Sivle, Lise D. Visser, Fleur Cure, Charlotte Tyack, Peter L. Miller, Patrick J. O. |
author_sort |
Wensveen, Paul J. |
title |
Lack of behavioural responses of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) indicate limited effectiveness of sonar mitigation |
title_short |
Lack of behavioural responses of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) indicate limited effectiveness of sonar mitigation |
title_full |
Lack of behavioural responses of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) indicate limited effectiveness of sonar mitigation |
title_fullStr |
Lack of behavioural responses of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) indicate limited effectiveness of sonar mitigation |
title_full_unstemmed |
Lack of behavioural responses of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) indicate limited effectiveness of sonar mitigation |
title_sort |
lack of behavioural responses of humpback whales (megaptera novaeangliae) indicate limited effectiveness of sonar mitigation |
publisher |
HAL CCSD |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
https://hal.science/hal-02915534 |
genre |
baleen whale Megaptera novaeangliae |
genre_facet |
baleen whale Megaptera novaeangliae |
op_source |
ISSN: 0022-0949 EISSN: 1477-9145 Journal of Experimental Biology https://hal.science/hal-02915534 Journal of Experimental Biology, 2017, 220 (22), pp.4150--4161. ⟨10.242/jeb.161232⟩ |
op_relation |
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.242/jeb.161232 hal-02915534 https://hal.science/hal-02915534 doi:10.242/jeb.161232 |
_version_ |
1787423321988530176 |