Anthropogenic Noise and the Marine Environment
Abstract
The impact of anthropogenic noise on the marine environment is a subject of increasing concern to the United States Navy. Sources of noise include ambient noise from ship traffic, acoustic sources such as air guns used in petroleum exploration, and active sonar operations conducted for military operations. The Navy has acknowledged that the use of active sonar was a contributing factor to the cetacean strandings in the Bahamas in March 2000. The Office of Naval Research (ONR) subsequently initiated the Effects of Sound on the Marine Environment (ESME) program to address these issues, and to explore comprehensive approaches for reducing the adverse effects of anthropogenic noise on the marine environment. NRL was designated as the ESME systems integrator, and during the process developed the ESME Software Workbench. The ESME workbench, written in MATLAB (trademark), integrates data sets and computer models contributed by the ESME team of experts in the areas of oceanography, underwater acoustic propagation, and marine mammal physiology and behavior. Complex simulations can be rapidly constructed from an underlying set of conceptual models. Models are incorporated for simulating active acoustic sources and for simulating marine mammal movements. (A simulated marine mammal will be referred to as an "animat.") Additional models are provided for estimating the received time series along an animat's track, and for predicting the animat's cumulative acoustic exposure.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2006
- Accession Number
- ADA518539
Entities
People
- H-j. Shyu
- R. Hillson
Organizations
- United States Naval Research Laboratory