Data collection and analysis methods to evaluate potential impacts of seismic surveys and other marine industrial activities on baleen whales

Offshore surveying from seismic airgun arrays and other intense types of industrial development introduce substantial underwater noise, with potentially serious consequences for marine life. We describe an adaptive spectrum of data collection and analytical methods to evaluate the type, magnitude, and complexity of disturbance associated with industrial activities. Scientists and managers have often been mired in a cycle of mitigation and monitoring plans and data collection schemes that focus solely on the prevention of significant but generally rare instances of injury or death. Increased focus is needed on achieving a refined understanding of the sub-injurious but vastly more common impacts of disturbance on energetics, reproduction, and survivorship at population levels. Approaches that apply and adapt earlier knowledge and integrate tools tuned to exposed species, exposure type, and situational context can provide more insightful understanding of likely effects to inform effective monitoring, and mitigation. Such approaches require multi-disciplinary measurement technologies and individual/population-level statistical models to demonstrate how various types and levels of acute and chronic anthropogenic noise affect marine life. Standardized biological data (e.g., distribution, animal tracking, behavior) should be collected within structured, prioritized, and integrated methodological and analytical frameworks before, during, and after noise-generating activities. This paper sets forth an ‘ideal’ approach for planning, collecting data, and conducting analyses to test for effects of noise on baleen whales. The approach can range from simple to complex, depending on the context. Further, we discuss and recommend methods for analyzing sampling data using currently available tools and guidelines, including behavioral response severity metrics, acoustic criteria, and bioenergetic and population effects models.

Duke Scholars

Author Douglas Nowacek Marine Science and Conservation