Noise impacts in the Salish Sea under commercial shipping growth scenarios
Presentation Abstract
We present underwater noise pollution levels and statistics from ~7000 commercial ships that transited Haro Strait in a 30-month period during 2011-2013. Bulk carriers make up 34% of the ships, while tankers constitute 5% of the traffic. On average 22.5 ships pass Lime Kiln lighthouse each day, or about 1 per hour. We combine typical source levels from specific vessel classes with the auditory thresholds of marine mammals that inhabit the Salish Sea to model how increased noise reduces communication and foraging space, particularly for the endangered Southern Resident killer whales. Finally, we compare how acoustic impacts change under different growth scenarios for commercial shipping, including: increased proportion of tankers; increased proportion of bulk carriers; increased traffic with constant proportion of ship classes.
Session Title
Session S-01C: Salish Sea Marine Vessels: Programs and Impacts
Conference Track
Water Quality-Related
Conference Name
Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference (2014 : Seattle, Wash.)
Document Type
Event
Start Date
30-4-2014 10:30 AM
End Date
30-4-2014 12:00 PM
Location
Room 606
Genre/Form
conference proceedings; presentations (communicative events)
Contributing Repository
Digital content made available by University Archives, Heritage Resources, Western Libraries, Western Washington University.
Subjects – Topical (LCSH)
Underwater acostics--Salish Sea (B.C. and Wash.); Marine animals--Effect of noise on--Salish Sea (B.C. and Wash.); Noise pollution--Salish Sea (B.C. and Wash.); Cargo ships--Salish Sea (B.C. and Wash.)
Geographic Coverage
Salish Sea (B.C. and Wash.)
Rights
This resource is displayed for educational purposes only and may be subject to U.S. and international copyright laws. For more information about rights or obtaining copies of this resource, please contact University Archives, Heritage Resources, Western Libraries, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA 98225-9103, USA (360-650-7534; heritage.resources@wwu.edu) and refer to the collection name and identifier. Any materials cited must be attributed to the Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference Records, University Archives, Heritage Resources, Western Libraries, Western Washington University.
Type
Text
Language
English
Format
application/pdf
Noise impacts in the Salish Sea under commercial shipping growth scenarios
Room 606
We present underwater noise pollution levels and statistics from ~7000 commercial ships that transited Haro Strait in a 30-month period during 2011-2013. Bulk carriers make up 34% of the ships, while tankers constitute 5% of the traffic. On average 22.5 ships pass Lime Kiln lighthouse each day, or about 1 per hour. We combine typical source levels from specific vessel classes with the auditory thresholds of marine mammals that inhabit the Salish Sea to model how increased noise reduces communication and foraging space, particularly for the endangered Southern Resident killer whales. Finally, we compare how acoustic impacts change under different growth scenarios for commercial shipping, including: increased proportion of tankers; increased proportion of bulk carriers; increased traffic with constant proportion of ship classes.
