Impact by active sonar on marine mammals - Status of knowledge since 2013

Authors:

  • Mathias Andersson
  • Andreas Nöjd

Publish date: 2016-03-08

Report number: FOI-R--4234--SE

Pages: 26

Written in: Swedish

Keywords:

  • sonarsystems
  • mammals
  • seals
  • harbour porpoises
  • environmental effects
  • standoff-ranges

Abstract

The Swedish Navy uses active sonar in submarine warfare and mine clearance. During these activities loud noise is generated that might disturb and harm marine animals. Since 2010, FOI conducts research on behalf of the Swedish Armed Forces to assess and minimize the impact of underwater activities. This report is an update and a complement to the FOI report "FOI-R - 3504-SE Acoustic environmental effects of the Swedish Navy active sonar" (Andersson and Johansson, 2013). The report is a part of a delivery within the project Studier av Miljöpåverkan från Aktiva sonarer och Sprängningar samt Handlingsregler (SMASH), which has the overall goal to establish conditions for the Navy to conduct operations while minimizing the negative environmental impact of noise underwater. Since 2013, new studies have been published related to impacts on behaviour and injury from sound on harbour porpoises. They show that porpoises may react at very large distances to high levels of noise from e.g. piling noise. Furthermore, University of Southern Denmark conducted a study for FOI where they investigated sound levels that give rise to temporary threshold shift on harbour porpoise when subjected to a sonar like pulse at 25 kHz. With this new information, new stand-off ranges were estimated for VDS Hydra´. The results show that the ranges were 1-4 km longer than what the previous were estimated (Andersson och Johansson, 2013). For seals there are a couple of relevant studies published after 2013, especially new audiogram for ringed seals showing that they have a higher sensitivity to sound than previously estimated. Common seal was shown to react to a variety of noise levels and frequencies depending on the source (piling noise and seal deterrents). However, no new information has been established and thus new estimates of stand-off ranges for seals are not necessary. Regarding sensitivity and impact from noise for marina mammals, new weighting curves (an adjustment because of different sensitivity in the frequency domain) was developed by NOAA in the USA, but only available in draft form. Once they are confirmed, they can be used in the future work for the proposed guidelines. Swedish Navy has required a new sonobuoy (188) that can be dropped from helicopter, airplane or surface vessel. It has an operating time of 50 seconds (corresponds to 60 ping-minutes) and transmits on frequencies between 6.5-9.5 kHz. At the moment no stand-off ranges has been calculated. The report also provieds an overview of how the Swedish Navy use active sonar and how to estimate the pressure on the environment, i.e., the days per year that active sonars where used. Further, an overview is given on the number of international exercises that the Swedish Navy participated in during 2014-2015.