Standards Development

Scope

Standardize terms and definitions for aquatic bioacoustics, including biotremology

Purpose

Light propagates poorly in water, and aquatic animals have evolved to use sound to understand their surroundings (Au & Hastings, 2008; Fay, 2009). This reliance on underwater sound makes aquatic animals vulnerable to noise pollution (Popper et al 2014; Southall et al 2019; Erbe 2019).

Sound is often an unintended by-product of man-made activities, and the increasing number of soundproducing human activities in oceans, seas, lakes, rivers and harbours have led to concern over noise pollution from unwanted sound and its potential effect on aquatic life. In some countries, there is already incipient regulation with regard to the impact of the radiated underwater sound, requiring acoustic monitoring for environmental impact assessment during construction projects. It is recognised worldwide that challenges are posed for marine life from the noise pollution produced by human activities, including shipping, seismic surveys, windfarm construction, clearance of unexploded ordnance (UXO) and decommissioning of end-of-life offshore platforms.

Worldwide there is an increasing awareness and concern for possible effects of noise-related impacts from the addition of anthropogenic underwater sound in marine environments. For example, in the European Union (EU), the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) requires EU Member States to achieve or maintain Good Environmental Status (GES) by the year 2020. GES has eleven descriptors, of which one, Descriptor 11, (“Introduction of energy, including underwater noise, is at levels that do not adversely affect the marine environment”) relates to underwater noise. In November 2022, the EU published two documents establishing threshold values for GES Descriptor 11 (TG Noise 2023a,b)

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has developed a forward looking Ocean Noise Strategy that provides long term direction and guidance. Further, NOAA publishes Technical Guidance for Assessing the Effects of Anthropogenic Sound on Marine Mammal Hearing (NMFS 2018).

Australia is developing national anthropogenic underwater noise guidelines. Industry guidelines regulating interaction between offshore seismic exploration and whales are being updated. In the UK, the British Energy Security Strategy mandates a massive acceleration of offshore renewable energy (50 GW by 2030). The UK Marine Strategy has designated Special Areas of Conservation in UK waters for protection of key species, and is actively promoting noise abatement for marine pile driving and UXO removal in order to manage the offshore energy expansion, minimise significant adverse long-term effects for marine ecosystems at the population level, and maintain good environmental status.

Lastly, an ANSI technical report describes Sound Exposure Guidelines for Fishes and Sea Turtles (Popper et al 2014). 

Effective communication between stakeholders is needed to address the risk of environmental impact described by the regulatory frameworks. Effective communication requires a common understanding of the words used. However, relevant publications (e.g., Popper et al., 2014; NMFS 2018; TG Noise 2023a,b) all use different terminology, sometimes using different words with the same meaning and sometimes the same word with different meanings. In both cases confusion and ambiguity can result, leading to potential misunderstandings.

In 2019, IQOE WG reviewed existing national and international standard procedures, finding no international standards and just one national standard, for measuring the audiogram of toothed whales. IQOE (2019) concluded that “in marine bioacoustics there is a void of standards for measurement, reporting, and interpretation.” To fill the vacuum and bridge the gap between stakeholders the first step is to create a lexicon shared between the stakeholders (scientists and managers, biologists and physicists, industry and regulators), by establishing an unambiguous meaning for each term, thus reducing the risk of misinterpretation.

Light propagates poorly in water, and aquatic animals have evolved to use sound to understand their surroundings. Underwater sound also has the potential to affect the well-being of aquatic animals, the recognition of which has led to national guidelines (NMFS 2018) and international regulation (MSFD). Thus, responsible custodianship of the Earth’s oceans, lakes and rivers is facilitated by effective communication, which in turn requires the development of a clear and unambiguous lexicon. A common vocabulary promotes scientific discourse, and effective regulation and management of underwater noise.

The purpose of this New Work Item Proposal is to propose the development of a bioacoustical terminology standard that would facilitate communication between stakeholders by building on the foundations provided by the International System of Quantities (ISQ) and ISO/IEC 80000.

REFERENCES

Au, W. W., & Hastings, M. C. (2008). Principles of marine bioacoustics (Vol. 510). New York: Springer. Erbe, C., Marley, S. A., Schoeman, R. P., Smith, J. N., Trigg, L. E., & Embling, C. B. (2019). The effects of ship noise on marine mammals—A review. Frontiers in Marine Science, 6, 606. Fay, R. (2009). Soundscapes and the sense of hearing of fishes. Integrative Zoology, 4(1), 26-32. IQOE – Marine Bioacoustical Standardization Working Group (2019) IQOE – Inventory of existing standards and guidelines relevant to marine bioacoustics National Marine Fisheries Service. 2018. 2018 Revisions to: Technical Guidance for Assessing the Effects of Anthropogenic Sound on Marine Mammal Hearing (Version 2.0): Underwater Thresholds for Onset of Permanent and Temporary Threshold Shifts. U.S. Dept. of Commer., NOAA. NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS-OPR-59, 167 p. Popper AN, Hawkins AD, Fay RR, Mann DA, Bartol S, Carlson TJ, Coombs S, Ellison WT, Gentry RL, Halvorsen MB, Løkkeborg S, Rogers PH, Southall BL, Zeddies DG, Tavolga WN. 2014. ASA S3/SC1. 4 TR-2014 Sound Exposure Guidelines for Fishes and Sea Turtles: A Technical Report Prepared by ANSIAccredited Standards Committee S3/SC1 and Registered with ANSI. Springer Southall BL, Finneran JJ, Reichmuth C, Nachtigall PE, Ketten DR, Bowles AE, ... Tyack PL. 2019. Marine mammal noise exposure criteria: updated scientific recommendations for residual hearing effects. Aquatic Mammals, 45(2), 125-232 TG Noise 2023a. Sigray P., Andersson M., André M., Azzellino A., Borsani J.F., Bou M., Castellote M., Ceyrac L., Dellong D., Folegot T., Hedgeland D., Juretzek C., Klauson A., Leaper R., Le Courtois F., Liebschner A., Maglio A., Mueller A , Norro A., Novellino A., Outinen O., Popit A., Prospathopoulos A., Thomsen F., Tougaard J., Vukadin P., Weilgart L., Setting EU Threshold Values for impulsive underwater sound, Technical Group on Underwater Noise (TG NOISE), MSFD Common Implementation Strategy, Edited by Jean-Noël Druon, Georg Hanke and Maud Casier, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2023, doi:10.2760/60215, JRC133477 TG Noise 2023b. Borsani, J.F., Andersson M., André M., Azzellino A., Bou M., Castellote M., Ceyrac L., Dellong D., Folegot T., Hedgeland D., Juretzek C., Klauson A., Leaper R., Le Courtois F., Liebschner A., Maglio A., Mueller A. , Norro A., Novellino A., Outinen O., Popit A., Prospathopoulos A., Sigray P., Thomsen F., Tougaard J., Vukadin P., and Weilgart L., Setting EU Threshold Values for continuous underwater sound, Technical Group on Underwater Noise (TG NOISE), MSFD Common Implementation Strategy, Edited by Jean-Noël Druon, Georg Hanke and Maud Casier, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2023, doi:10.2760/690123, JRC133476