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Directional hydrophone clusters reveal evasive responses of small cetaceans to disturbance at offshore windfarms

integration_instructionsResearch softwarekeyboard_double_arrow_right Software 21 Dec 2022Publisher:Zenodo

Authors: Graham, Isla; Gillespie, Douglas; Gkikopoulou, Kalliopi; Hastie, Gordon; Thompson, Paul;

doi: 10.5281/zenodo.5841997 , 10.5281/zenodo.5841998

Directional hydrophone clusters reveal evasive responses of small cetaceans to disturbance at offshore windfarms

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Abstract

Mitigation measures to disperse marine mammals prior to pile-driving include acoustic deterrent devices and piling soft starts, but their efficacy remains uncertain. We developed a self-contained portable hydrophone cluster to detect small cetacean movements. Using an array of clusters within 10 km of foundation pile installations, we tested the hypothesis that harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) respond to mitigation measures at offshore windfarm sites by moving away. During baseline periods, porpoise movements were evenly distributed in all directions. In contrast, animals showed significant directional movement away from sound sources during acoustic deterrent device use and piling soft starts. We demonstrate that porpoises respond to measures aimed to mitigate the most severe impacts of construction at offshore windfarms by swimming directly away from these sound sources. Portable directional hydrophone clusters now provide opportunities to characterise responses to disturbance sources across a broad suite of habitats and contexts.

A full description of the data identifiers, R code and the data files required to repeat each analysis is provided in the text file: README_Graham_MEOW_cMMMP_Data_Packages.txt Data and code consist of the following 13 files/file packages. Graham_MEOW_cMMMP_construction_noise_data_2022-07-19.txt Graham_MEOW_cMMMP_construction_activity_data_2022-01-06.txt Graham_MEOW_cMMMP_directional_hydrophone_cluster_locations_and_distances_to_construction_data_2022-01-06.txt Graham_MEOW_cMMMP_R_code_to characterize_construction_noise_levels_2022-07-19.R Graham_MEOW_cMMMP_harbour_porpoise_click_data_2022-01-06.txt Graham_MEOW_cMMMP_R_code_to_process_and_analyse_harbour_porpoise_click_data_2022-07-19.R Depl1062.zip Depl1064.zip Depl1065.zip Depl1066.zip Depl1067.zip Depl1068.zip Depl1069.zip Funding provided by: Moray Offshore Wind Farm (East) Ltd.*Crossref Funder Registry ID: Award Number:

Harbour porpoise clicks and noise levels during mitigation activities and baseline periods were recorded using tetrahedral clusters of hydrophones connected to four-channel underwater acoustic recorders (SoundTrap ST4300HF, Ocean Instruments NZ) deployed on the seabed. Recordings on each hydrophone cluster were processed in open-source PAMGuard software to determine received noise levels and classify harbour porpoise clicks. Data on the timing of construction activities were provided by the windfarm developer (Moray Offshore Wind Farm (East) Ltd).

Related Organizations

University of St Andrews
United Kingdom
University of Aberdeen
United Kingdom

Keywords

Renewable energy, anthropogenic disturbance, evasive response, mitigation measures, Marine mammal conservation, passive acoustic monitoring, phonotaxis, offshore windfarm, acoustic deterrent device, Underwater noise

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Directional hydrophone clusters reveal evasive responses of small cetaceans to disturbance at offshore windfarms
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