Marine Mammal Observer and Passive Acoustic Monitoring Handbook

Marine Mammal Observer and Passive Acoustic Monitoring Handbook

Marine Mammal Observer and Passive Acoustic Monitoring Handbook

Victoria L.G. Todd, Ian B. Todd, Jane C. Gardiner and Erica C.N. Morrin

Pelagic Publishing | www.pelagicpublishing.com

Published by Pelagic Publishing

www.pelagicpublishing.com

PO Box 725, Exeter EX1 9QU, UK

Marine Mammal Observer and Passive Acoustic Monitoring Handbook

ISBN 978-1-907807-66-4 (Pbk)

ISBN 978-1-907807-67-1 (Hbk)

ISBN 978-1-907807-68-8 (ePub)

ISBN 978-1-907807-69-5 (Mobi)

ISBN 978-1-907807-70-1 (PDF)

Copyright © 2015 Ocean Science Consulting Ltd

This book should be quoted as Todd, V.L.G, Todd, I.B., Gardiner, J.C. and Morrin, C.N. (2015) Marine Mammal Observer and Passive Acoustic Monitoring Handbook. Exeter: Pelagic Publishing.

All rights reserved. No part of this document may be produced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior permission from the publisher. While every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the authors, nor Pelagic Publishing, its agents and distributors will be held liable for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Cover images © OSC 2015, except courtesy of the following: humpback whale, NOAA Fisheries; polar bear, Kostya Shvebs; windfarm, Tony Moran; vessel, Polarcus; and, hydrophone array, Seiche Measurements.

It is not the events in your life that determine your path, but your reaction to them.

Anonymous

For Señor Niels Torgau for the first chance, Hanneke van den Berge for believing, and Petra Todd for her enduring and uplifting spirit.

Contents

About the Authors

Foreword

Acknowledgements

List of Acronyms, Units, Prefixes and Symbols

Preface

Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 General Overview

1.2 Marine Mammal Classification

1.2.1 Cetaceans

1.2.2 Pinnipeds

1.2.3 Sirenians

1.2.4 Marine mustelids

1.2.5 Polar bear

1.3 Marine Mammal Distribution

1.4 Effects of Anthropogenic Sound on Marine Mammals

1.4.1 Temporary Threshold Shift and Permanent Threshold Shift

1.4.2 Behavioural alterations

1.4.3 Stress

1.4.4 Masking

1.4.5 Strandings

1.4.6 Indirect effects

1.5 Marine Mammal Hearing

1.5.1 Audiograms

1.5.2 Hearing ranges

1.5.3 Sound exposure criteria

Chapter 2 Mitigation Measures

2.1 Introduction

2.2 Protective Legislation

2.3 Marine Protected Areas

2.4 Project Planning

2.5 Control of Operational Procedures

2.6 Noise Reduction Methods

2.7 Acoustic Mitigation Devices

2.8 Active SONAR

2.9 Visual and Acoustic Watches

2.10 MMO and PAM Operator Requirements

2.11 Species for which Mitigation Applies

2.12 Exclusion Zones

2.13 Pre-Watch

2.14 Soft-Starts

2.15 Sound Source Testing

2.16 Operation Issues and Breaks in Sound Production

2.17 Delays and Shut-Downs

2.18 Night-Time and Low Visibility Working

2.19 Report Writing

Chapter 3 Sources of Anthropogenic Noise

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Shipping

3.3 Offshore Wind Farms

3.4 Tidal Turbines

3.5 Dredging

3.6 Drilling and Production

3.7 Floating Production Storage Offloading

3.8 Acoustic Mitigation Devices

3.9 Seismic

3.10 Pile Driving

3.11 SONAR

3.12 Whale Finders

3.13 Explosions

3.14 Electromagnetic

Chapter 4 Training

4.1 Introduction

4.2 Background Reading and Scientific Organisations

4.3 Becoming a Certified MMO or PAM Operator

4.3.1 MMO training

4.3.2 PAM Operator

4.4 Courses

4.4.1 UK and Ireland

4.4.2 USA (GoM)

4.4.3 Greenland

4.4.4 New Zealand

4.4.5 Offshore sea survival

4.4.6 Offshore medicals

4.5 Insurance

4.6 Curriculum Vitae

4.7 Gaining Offshore Experience

Chapter 5 Offshore Life

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Contract Award

5.3 Pay

5.4 Documentation

5.5 Vantage Cards

5.6 Packing

5.7 Personal Protective Equipment

5.8 Pre-Project Research

5.9 Discretion

5.10 Mobilisation

5.11 Helicopters

5.12 Arrival

5.13 Offshore Personnel

5.14 Personal Conduct

5.15 Phone and Internet

5.16 Drugs and Alcohol

5.17 Safety Management Systems

5.18 T-Card System

5.19 Safety Drills

5.20 Demobilisation

5.21 Vessels

5.21.1 Kick-off meeting

5.21.2 Dealing with seasickness

5.21.3 Baseline surveys

5.21.4 Dredging

5.21.5 Hydrographical surveys

5.21.6 Seismic surveys

5.21.7 Piling

5.21.8 Military SONAR

5.22 Offshore Installations

5.22.1 Arrival

5.22.2 Layout

5.22.3 Kick-off, shift, and rotation meetings

5.22.4 Personnel

5.22.5 Operational activities

5.22.6 Weather

5.22.7 General hazards

5.22.8 Rig tow

5.22.9 Drilling rig and production platform complexes

5.22.10 VSP

5.22.11 Conductor hammering

Chapter 6 MMO Theory and Practice

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Equipment

6.2.1 Fold-over clipboard

6.2.2 Stationery

6.2.3 Digital watch

6.2.4 Marine radio

6.2.5 Binoculars

6.2.6 GPS

6.2.7 Cameras

6.2.8 Lenses

6.2.9 Plumb-bob

6.2.10 Field guides

6.3 Conducting an MMO Watch

6.4 Observation Platform

6.5 Recording Position

6.5.1 Ranging software

6.6 Recording Vessel Movements

6.7 Marine Mammal Identification

6.7.1 Cetacean identification

6.7.2 Pinniped identification

6.8 Range Estimation

6.9 Bearing Estimation

6.10 Photographing Marine Mammals

6.11 Data Collection

6.11.1 Cover page

6.11.2 Effort

6.11.3 Operations data

6.11.4 Sightings

6.12 MMO at Night

6.13 Distance Sampling

Chapter 7 PAM Theory

7.1 Introduction

7.2 Basics of Sound

7.2.1 Frequency

7.2.2 Amplitude

7.2.3 Sound energy, intensity, and power

7.2.4 Sound Pressure Level and the decibel scale

7.2.5 Source Level

7.2.6 Sound propagation and transmission loss

7.2.7 Received Level

7.2.8 SONAR equation

7.2.9 Sound Exposure Level

7.2.10 Duty cycle

7.3 Displays of Sound

7.3.1 Spectrogram

7.3.2 Power spectrum and Power Spectral Density

7.3.3 Sound pressure density spectrum

7.3.4 Frequency bands

7.3.5 Percentile levels

7.3.6 Equivalent Continuous Sound Pressure Level

7.3.7 Waveform

Chapter 8 Marine Mammal Vocalisations

8.1 Introduction

8.2 Marine Mammal Sounds

8.2.1 Echolocation and clicks

8.2.2 Pulsed sounds

8.2.3 Tonal sounds

8.2.4 Song

8.3 Functions of Sound

8.3.1 Hunting and navigation

8.3.2 Individual and group recognition

8.3.3 Social cohesion and behaviour coordination

8.3.4 Mate finding

8.3.5 Agonistic and aggressive behaviour

8.4 Likelihood of a PAM Detection

8.5 Species Identification

8.5.1 Physeteridae

8.5.2 Kogiidae

8.5.3 Ziphiidae

8.5.4 Pontoporiidae

8.5.5 Monodontidae

8.5.6 Delphinidae

8.5.7 Phocoenidae

Chapter 9 PAM Practice

9.1 Introduction

9.2 Existing PAM Technologies

9.3 PAM Equipment

9.3.1 Tow cable

9.3.2 Hydrophones

9.3.3 Depth sensor

9.3.4 Deck cable

9.3.5 Data Acquisition Unit

9.3.6 Sound cards

9.3.7 Computers

9.3.8 Filters and gain

9.3.9 GPS

9.3.10 Serial-to-USB converter

9.3.11 Gender changer

9.3.12 Headphones

9.3.13 Connectors

9.3.14 Oscilloscope

9.3.15 Tool kit

9.3.16 Tape

9.4 PAM Mobilisation

9.4.1 Unpacking

9.5 Deck Cable Run

9.6 PAM Monitoring Station Configuration

9.6.1 Data Acquisition Unit

9.6.2 DAU connectors

9.6.3 Sound cards

9.6.4 Computers

9.6.5 GPS or NMEA feed

9.6.6 Headphones

9.7 PAMGuard

9.7.1 Starting PAMGuard

9.7.2 Configuring PAMGuard: Part I

9.7.3 Hydrophone specifications and sampling rate

9.7.4 Configuring PAMGuard: Part II

9.7.5 PAMGuard troubleshooting

9.8 Tap (Noise) Test

9.9 Earthing

9.10 Depth Sensor Calibration

9.11 Tow Cable Deployment

9.11.1 General deployment

9.11.2 Seismic survey vessels

9.11.3 Offshore support vessels

9.11.4 Vertical deployment

9.12 PAM Monitoring

9.12.1 Shifts

9.12.2 Monitoring methods

9.12.3 Data collection

9.12.4 Detection metrics

9.12.5 Sound playback

9.13 PAM Detections During Industrial Operations

9.13.1 Localising animals

9.13.2 Zero marine mammal detections: possible explanations

9.13.3 Non-target noise

9.14 Equipment Responsibilities: Routine Housekeeping

9.14.1 Retrieval in bad weather

9.14.2 Loss of propulsion

9.14.3 Wiring, soldering and potting

9.15 PAM Demobilisation

9.15.1 Handover notes

9.15.2 Tow cable

9.15.3 Connectors, hydrophones and depth sensors

9.15.4 Deck cable removal

9.15.5 Cable reels and drums

9.15.6 PAM monitoring station

9.15.7 Pallet preparation

9.15.8 Documentation

Chapter 10 Report Writing

10.1 Introduction

10.2 Content

10.3 Summary

10.4 Introduction

10.5 Methodology

10.6 Results

10.6.1 Sightings

10.6.2 Delays or shut-downs

10.6.3 Weather

10.7 Discussion and Conclusion

10.8 Recommendations

10.9 Acknowledgements, References and Data Submission

Glossary of Terms

References

Index

About the Authors

Dr Victoria Todd is a founding Managing Director and Marine Science Consultant at Ocean Science Consulting (OSC), a Director at Ocean Science Consulting NZ (Asia-Pacific) (OSC-NZ), and is a Visiting Scientist at Institute of Sound and Vibration Research (ISVR, Southampton University, UK). She undertook a post doc in commercial aquaculture at Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS, UK), planning and directing a comprehensive series of acoustic trials on seal scarers. She holds degrees in the ecology and acoustics of bats (PhD, Leeds University, UK), Oceanography (MSc, scholarship-funded by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, WHOI, US, and National Oceanography Centre, UK), and Marine Biology (BSc Hons, Liverpool University, UK). Dr Todd is also a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London. She is experienced in Galápagos fish taxonomy, marine mammal acoustics and marine mammal visual and acoustic surveys worldwide for scientific, commercial and defence contracts. Research interests include bioacoustics, the North Sea rigs-to-reefs concept, harbour porpoise foraging ecology around offshore oil and gas installations, and the effects of anthropogenic noise on marine life, all of which are core research topics at OSC. Dr Todd’s current scientific duties include training, survey design and project management, fieldwork, data analysis, reports, literature reviews, advice documents, Marine Mammal Mitigation Plans or Protocols (MMMPs), and publishing. As the Chief Scientist, she also coordinates most research.

Ian Todd is a founding Managing Director and Marine Science Consultant at OSC, a Director at OSC-NZ, and is undertaking part-time postgraduate research in harbour porpoise (and other marine mammal) interactions with offshore installations and the environment at ISVR (PhD, Southampton University, UK). He holds degrees in Marine Resource, Development & Protection (NERC-funded MSc scholarship, Heriot-Watt University, UK) and Business & Economics (BCom with Honours, Edinburgh University, UK), various diplomas including Marine Engineering (HND, Glasgow College of Nautical Studies, UK), and a Marine Engineering Officer Certificate of Dual Competency (Class IV Steam and Motor Plants, Maritime & Coastguard Agency, UK). As a former Third Engineer Officer (including Health and Safety Officer) in the Merchant Navy, Mr Todd served deep-sea and worldwide with P&O Nedlloyd, then the world’s largest container-shipping company. He organises and supervises visual and acoustic surveys of marine mammals worldwide for scientific, commercial and defence contracts. Mr Todd’s research interests are as per OSC’s core research topics, but include distance sampling, and his current scientific duties are similar to Dr Victoria Todd, but include recruitment, procurement, logistics, finance, brand development, environmental risk assessments, and Health and Safety (H&S).

Jane Gardiner is a Research Assistant at OSC. She holds degrees in Applied Marine Science (MSc) and Marine Biology (BSc with Honours), both from University of Plymouth. Ms Gardiner is involved with peer-reviewed research publications, and has served Lead (field position) for visual and acoustic surveys of marine mammals worldwide for scientific and commercial contracts. Ms Gardiner’s research interests are as per OSC’s core research topics and her current scientific duties include fieldwork, literature reviews, social media, and H&S.