Title: Noise pollution effects on cetaceans
Principle Investigator: Michel André
Abstract: The necessary socio-economic and strategic development of the modern society generates a pressure on the marine habitat which must be answered by the application of strategies to facilitate the integration of human-related activities and the conservation of the marine biodiversity. Among the threatening factors which compromise this balance, one of the major short term and world wide threats for the sea and the marine mammals, is constituted by the noise produced by artificial sources. The control of these sources constitutes a scientific challenge and involves an important responsibility from the society and the governments. The difficulty lies in collecting referenced objective data which could determine the acoustic tolerance threshold of the marine ecosystems. In the light of recent mortality events, it is becoming clear that man-made noise, at different intensity levels, can affect negatively cetacean populations, including displacement, avoidance reactions, collisions with ships, mass stranding and death. Evidence is particularly strong that high intensity active sonar, and other loud noise sources, like those from shipping, gas exploration, seismic surveys, etc., cause lesions in acoustic organs which are severe enough to be lethal. The same sources may also produce behaviours that cause acute lesions which eventually lead the animals to strand and die. The current scientific knowledge on the effect on noise on marine mammals and their habitat is insufficient to understand the relationships of frequencies, intensities, and duration of exposures in producing damage. These new elements request a dynamic analysis of the situation which must go through the development and implementation of new technologies without slowing down human interests nor compromising the conservation of the marine habitat. The project primary objective is to investigate the ways in which anthropogenic noise associated with human activities threatens cetacean populations and, more generally, affects the marine environment, to develop and apply specific solutions able to balance the development of human activities with the marine mammal conservation. This objective will provide the competent authorities with management instruments, as well as conservation actions, basis for new policies, etc. This will be achieved by: - the study of the acoustic degradation of the oceans - the development of technological solutions to balance simultaneously the development of human activities and the conservation of the marine habitat.
Start date: : 2005End date: 2007
Financing: Fundación BBVA
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Link to module:
Publication list:
A Passive Acoustic Solution to 3D Whale Monitoring
Foraging on squids: the sperm whale mid-range sonar
Comparison of Odontocete Ears through Computerised Tomography
A portable auditory evoked potentials acquisition system for rapid diagnosis of dolphin hearing functionality
A standard method for sperm whale coda classification
On the possibility of detecting and tracking echolocating whales by passive acoustics and ambient noise imaging
Neural network based sperm whale click classification
CT Scan 3D reconstruction of the ear related with the Acoustic sensitivity in harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena)
Acoustic release of gas bubbles to prevent cetacean entanglement in fishing nets
Comparison of Gaussian based methods to classify sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) clicks
Demonstration of a Standard Method for Sperm Whale Coda Clustering
Evaluation of a multistatic sonar to detect silent surfacing sperm whales using the group’s chorus
Computerised Tomography 3D reconstruction of odontocete ears related with the species acoustic sensitivity
OBSEA: An Expandable Submarine Observatory
Noise, Acoustic Signals and Marine Mammals: a possible balance?
A portable auditory steady-state response evoked potentials unit for fast screening of aquatic mammals
Neural network-based sperm whale click classification
A comparison of model and non-model based time–frequency transforms for sperm whale click classification
On the possibility of detecting surfacing sperm whales at risk of collision using others’ foraging clicks
Foraging on squid: the sperm whale mid-range sonar
Comparative morphometry of odontocete ears through computerized tomography
Twenty years of marine mammal research in Europe
A passive acoustic solution to prevent collisions with whales
Sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) acoustic identification
Range detection of sperm whale sonar .
A classification scheme of sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) codas
5th International Congress on Maritime Technological Innovations and Research. Barcelona, 21-23 November
Contribution to a protocol to decalcify odontocete ear samples with RDO
OdiSEA: Rapid assessment of hearing in cetaceans with auditory evoked potentials
Cetacean stranding event management: contribution to a protocol to assess cetacean hearing
Cross-section topografical anatomy of dolphins and its application for diagnosis imaging techniques
Simulation of bio-sonar signals 3D propagation in heterogeneus media
Localising Cetacean Sounds for the Real-Time Mitigation and Long-Term Acoustic Monitoring of Noise
Participation:
Josep Maria Alonso
Michel André
Eduard Degollada
Eric Delory
A. Torbjörn Johansson
Maria Morell
Marta Solé
Mike van der Schaar