MARINE MAMMAL NOISE-EXPOSURE CRITERIA: INITIAL SCIENTIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

By B. Southall, A. Bowles, W. Ellison, J. Finneran, R. Gentry, C. Greene, D. Kastak, D. Ketten, James H. Miller, P. Nachtigall and 3 more. 2008

986 citations recorded by the source corpus.

An expert panel reviewed the expanding literature on marine mammal (cetacean and pinniped) auditory and behavioral responses to sound exposure to develop comprehensive, scientifically based noise exposure criteria [Aquatic Mammals 33(4)]. They used precautionary extrapolation procedures to predict exposure levels above which adverse effects (both physical and behavioral) could be expected. Due to the paucity of data on long‐term exposures, criteria were developed for single exposure events only. Marine mammals were broken into functional hearing groups. Exposure types were lumped into three broad classes (single pulses, multiple pulses, and nonpulses). Levels estimated to induce permanent noise‐induced hearing loss were determined for each of 15 sound type/animal group combinations. For example, injury criteria for pinnipeds in water exposed to multiple pulses were 186 dB re 1 μPa2 ‐s (weighted SEL) and 218 dBpk re 1 μPa (unweighted peak SPL). Discrete behavioral disturbance thresholds could only be deter...

Subfields: Ecology

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Citations in the corpus

Marine mammal conservation: over the horizon (2021, background): “Impacts range from direct tissue trauma, particularly auditory damage (Southall et al. 2008), to behavioural responses and stress (Gomez et al.”
A multivariate mixed hidden Markov model for blue whale behaviour and responses to sound exposure (2017, methodology): “5 seconds in duration) were transmitted by a custom-built underwater transducer array [Southall et al. (2012)] approxi-”
Marine mammals and sonar: Dose‐response studies, the risk‐disturbance hypothesis and the role of exposure context (2018, methodology): “Qualitative scoring of the severity of behavioural responses has been used to specify the probability that specific responses could lead to biologically significant effects (Miller et al., 2012; Sivle et al., 2015; Southall et al., 2007).”
Animal Communication and Noise (2013, background): “Aquat Sci 72:371–378 Andrew RK, Howe BM, Mercer JA, Dzieciuch MA (2002) Ocean ambient sounds: comparing the 1960s with the 1990s for a receiver off the Californian coast.”
Acoustic masking in marine ecosystems: intuitions, analysis, and implication (2009, neutral): “…of discussion and debate over how marine mammals may be affected by anthropogenic noise in the ocean (see NRC 2000, 2003, 2005, Cox et al. 2006, Southall et al. 2007), with most attention directed at understanding the physiological and behavioral impacts from short-term, small-scale, high…”
Responses of harbour porpoises to pile driving at the Horns Rev II offshore wind farm in the Danish North Sea (2011, methodology): “At 720 m distance, during 1 pile driving event, the peak level reached 196 dB re 1 µPa, the SEL level reached a maximum of 176 dB re 1 µPa2 s and the M-weighted SEL (see Southall et al. 2007) reached 170 dB re 1 µPa2 s 209 Fig.”
Marine seismic surveys and ocean noise: time for coordinated and prudent planning (2015, background): “…at ~140 dBRMS that accounts, even qualitatively, for contextual issues likely affecting response probability (eg whether the animal is feeding or traveling) comes much closer to reflecting the existing data than does the 160 dBRMS step-function that is normally used (see Southall et al. 2007).”
Experimental field studies to measure behavioral responses of cetaceans to sonar (2016, methodology): “The severity of behavioral responses has been considered within some studies (e.g. Miller et al. 2012, Sivle et al. 2015) using an adaptation of the Southall et al. (2007) response severity scaling.”