Assessment of echolocating cetacean (porpoise and dolphin) occurrence & behaviour in offshore development sites using a novel passive acoustic monitor

摘要/目标：近海风能的发展加剧了水下噪声污染。这给海洋哺乳动物使用声音导航、猎物检测和通信带来了问题。被动声学监测(PAM)检测到鲸目动物发声的存在，并利用齿目动物(海豚和江豚)产生的宽带咔嗒发声用于导航和觅食目的。纽卡斯尔大学开发了一种新的低成本声学联网被动声监测系统的概念验证，该系统可以将鲸目动物探测到的经过处理的数据传输回海岸。该项目的总体目标是全面评估NanoPAM系统监测江豚和海豚发生和行为的能力，以及与近海风能开发的人为和环境参数有关的能力。这将分为两个研究领域：(1)纳米PAM系统的技术评估，以及(2)回声定位鲸类动物的行为和发生的评估。这将通过以下目标实现：(I)进行文献综述，以描述离岸风能开发的声景，并强调对鲸目动物的潜在影响；(Ii)利用自动识别系统(AIS)数据和已发表的关于船只声音特征的文献，模拟与海上风电场周围船只活动变化相关的北海声级的变化；(Iii)部署和测试NanoPAM装置与目前用于监测C/F-POD(www.chelonia.co.uk)和SoundTap 300 HF(www.Ocean Instruments.co.nz)的装置相比的性能；(Iv)在诺森伯兰的Blyth Bay安装NanoPAM系统，以评估港口江豚(Phocoena Phocena)和普通宽吻海豚(Tursioptruncatus)的发生和行为与Blyth Offshore Wind Farm周围船只和其他人为活动的关系；以及(V)利用第(I)至(Iv)项的资料，就如何改进NanoPAM系统及其在评估离岸开发项目的潜在影响方面的应用提出建议。

Summary/Aims:Offshore wind developments contribute to increasing underwater noise pollution. This poses issues for marine mammals use sound for navigation, prey detection and communication. Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM) detects the presence of vocalising cetaceans and exploits the broadband click vocalisations produced by odontocetes (dolphins and porpoises) for navigation and foraging purposes. Newcastle University has developed a proof of concept for a novel low-cost acoustically networked passive acoustic monitoring system, which transmit processed data of cetacean detections back to shore. The projects overall aim is to comprehensively assess the capacity of the NanoPAM system for monitoring occurrence and behaviour of porpoises and dolphins in relation to anthropogenic and environmental parameters at offshore wind energy developments. This will be divided into two research areas: (1) technical assessment of the NanoPAM system, and (2) assessment of echolocating cetacean's behaviour and occurrence.This will be achieved through the following objectives: (i) Conduct a literature review to characterise the soundscape of an offshore wind energy development, and highlight the potential impacts on cetaceans; (ii) Model the changes in the sound levels in the North Sea associated with changing vessel activity around offshore wind farms using Automatic Identification System (AIS) data and published literature on the characteristics of vessel sound; (iii) Deploy and test the performance of NanoPAM devices compared to devices currently used for PAM monitoring C/F-POD (www.chelonia.co.uk) and SoundTrap300 HF (www.oceaninstruments.co.nz); (iv) Deploy the NanoPAM system in Blyth Bay, Northumberland to assess occurrence and behaviour of harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) and common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) in relation to vessel and other anthropogenic activities around the Blyth Offshore Wind Farm; and (v) Use the information from (i) to (iv) to make recommendations for how to improve the NanoPAM system and its application in assessment of potential impact from offshore developments.