Comparative temporary threshold shifts in a harbor porpoise and harbor seal, and severe shift in a seal

Abstract

Anthropogenic noise may cause temporary hearing threshold shifts (TTSs) in marine mammals. Tests with identical methods show that harbor porpoises are more susceptible to TTS induced by octave-band white noise (OBN) centered around 4 kHz than harbor seals, although their unmasked (basic) hearing thresholds for that frequency are similar. A harbor seal was exposed for 1 h to an OBN with a very high sound pressure level (SPL), 22–30 dB above levels causing TTS onset. This elicited 44 dB TTS; hearing recovered within 4 days. Thus, for this signal and this single exposure, permanent threshold shift requires levels at least 22 dB above TTS onset levels. The severe TTS in the seal suggests that the critical level (above which TTS increases rapidly with increasing SPL) is between 150 and 160 dB re 1 μPa for a 60 min exposure to OBN centered at 4 kHz. In guidelines on TTS in marine mammals produced by policy makers in many countries, TTS is assumed to follow the equal energy hypothesis, so that when the sound exposure levels of fatiguing sounds are equal, the same TTS is predicted to be induced. However, like previous studies, the present study calls this model into question.