Harbour porpoise movement strategy affects cumulative number of animals acoustically exposed to underwater explosions

16Citations
Citations of this article
81Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.

Abstract

Anthropogenic sound in the marine environment can have negative consequences for marine fauna. Since most sound sources are intermittent or continuous, estimating how many individuals are exposed over time remains challenging, as this depends on the animals' mobility. Here we explored how animal movement influences how many, and how often, animals are impacted by sound. In a dedicated study, we estimated how different movement strategies affect the number of individual harbour porpoises Phocoena phocoena receiving temporary or permanent hearing loss due to underwater detonations of recovered explosives (mostly WWII aerial bombs). Geo-statistical distribution models were fitted to data from 4 marine mammal aerial surveys and used to simulate the distribution and movement of porpoises. Based on derived dose-response thresholds for temporary (TTS) or permanent threshold shifts (PTS), we estimated the number of animals affected in a single year. When individuals were free-roaming, an estimated 1200 and 24 000 unique individuals would suffer PTS and TTS, respectively. This equates to respectively 0.50 and 10% of the estimated North Sea population. In contrast, when porpoises remained in a local area, fewer animals would receive PTS and TTS (1100 [0.47%] and 15 000 [6.5%], respectively), but more individuals would be subjected to repeated exposures. Because most anthropogenic sound-producing activities operate continuously or intermittently, snapshot distribution estimates alone tend to underestimate the number of individuals exposed, particularly for mobile species. Hence, an understanding of animal movement is needed to estimate the impact of underwater sound or other human disturbance.

References Powered by Scopus

3536Citations
2071Readers

This article is free to access.

1762Citations
922Readers
Get full text
477Citations
1112Readers
Get full text

Cited by Powered by Scopus

Get full text

This article is free to access.

This article is free to access.

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

Aarts, G., Von Benda-Beckmann, A. M., Lucke, K., Sertlek, H. Ö., Van Bemmelen, R., Geelhoed, S. C. V., … Kirkwood, R. (2016). Harbour porpoise movement strategy affects cumulative number of animals acoustically exposed to underwater explosions. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 557, 261–275. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps11829

Readers over time

‘16‘17‘18‘19‘20‘21‘22‘23‘2408162432

Readers' Seniority

Tooltip

PhD / Post grad / Masters / Doc 22

48%

Researcher 22

48%

Professor / Associate Prof. 1

2%

Lecturer / Post doc 1

2%

Readers' Discipline

Tooltip

Agricultural and Biological Sciences 25

51%

Environmental Science 20

41%

Chemistry 2

4%

Engineering 2

4%

Article Metrics

Tooltip
Social Media
Shares, Likes & Comments: 5

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free
0