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A Global Scientific Workshop on Spatio-Temporal Management of Noise

Marine fauna, especially cetaceans, rely on sound for a range of biological functions and are susceptible to the effects of marine noise pollution (e.g. Richardson et al., 1995). However noise, despite its implicit classification as a pollutant by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), is not subject to the same level of regulation as other pollutants. Spatio-temporal restrictions (STRs), including marine protected areas (MPAs), offer one of the most effective means to protect cetaceans and their habitats from the cumulative and synergistic effects of noise as well as from other anthropogenic stressors (Weilgart, 2006), as the various threats confronting cetaceans do not occur in isolation. For example, there is evidence that anthropogenic noise could interact with cetacean by-catch or ship collisions, preventing animals from sensing fishing gear or oncoming vessels and making them more vulnerable to injury or death (Todd et al., 1996; Andre et al., 1997). However, despite great potential, at present very few MPAs are large enough to reduce ensonification (i.e. exposure) of cetaceans to noise from human activities in the ocean (Hoyt, this report). This consensus report creates a conceptual foundation for utilising marine protected areas and other STRs to help improve this situation. The efficient transmission of sound underwater (as compared to transmission in air) increases the geographical scale of the potential effects of anthropogenic noise pollution, which may interfere with biological processes at considerable geographical scales. Therefore, some reduced ensonification may be conferred if predetermined levels of intense mid-frequency sounds are excluded from areas tens of kilometres away from critical habitats (implying an STR on the order of 100 km 2 to 1,000 km 2). However, protection from intense low-frequency sounds might require larger distances of hundreds of kilometres from sound sources and areas of STR on the order of at least 10,000 km 2 to 100,000 km 2. There have been various strategies aimed at increasing the size of MPAs and their level of protection. The United Nations (UN) and other initiatives and congresses have suggested protecting 20-30 per cent of the oceans in some way (Roberts et al., 2006) and regional treaties such as The Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans in the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and contiguous Atlantic area (ACCOBAMS) are cooperating in the implementation of these goals. However, less than 1 per cent of the surface of the world ocean currently has any protected status, …