Passive acoustic monitoring of artificial reefs south of Long Island, New York provides novel insights on fish, marine mammal, and post-pandemic human activity occurring in nearshore coastal habitats

Abstract

Passive acoustic recorders were deployed at two artificial reef sites (25m water depth) south of Long Island, New York from 2020 to present. The study sites are popular recreational fishing locations but also near commercial fishing activities and shipping lanes for the Port of New York and New Jersey providing numerous types of human-generated signals which can be monitored. We investigated how human activities changed the nearshore soundscape following the global pandemic and found that periods (2020) following the pandemic shutdown were (in some regards) louder instead of quieter than soundscapes later on (2021). Peaks in power spectral densities recorded at the reef sites often corresponded to signals from idling or transitory vessels. In addition to human-produced sounds, signals from both fish and marine mammals are regularly heard on the reefs which provided the opportunity to investigate several ecological questions including: reproductive activity of commercially important cod and weakfish; residency of bottlenose dolphins through individual signature whistle analysis; and baleen whale usage of the nearshore habitat.