Comparison of methods used for computing the impact of sound on the marine environment

Abstract

Concern about the impact of sound on marine mammals has increased over the last decade, causing governments to take a more rigorous look at the potential impact of activities that introduce sound into the ocean. Environmental Impact Statements (EIS’s) can be prepared using differing analysis methods to estimate the impact on marine mammals. To assess consistency in assessment methods, differences in the base assumptions were investigated; in particular, differences that arise between assumptions of dynamic marine mammals (animat method) and static distributions of marine mammals (static distribution method). Using several ocean environment scenarios and species, it is demonstrated that differences consistently arise between the two methods. The static distribution method underestimates the number of behavioral harassments compared with the animat method. Repeating many simulations with the animat method provides a robust risk assessment, provides a measure of variability, and allows the probability of “spurious events” to be estimated.