Avoiding sharp accelerations can mitigate the impacts of a Ferry's radiated noise on the St. Lawrence whales

Exposure to anthropogenic noise from the commercial fleet is one of the primary constituents of the acoustic pollution perturbing the environment of aquatic life. Merchant ships (e.g. bulkers, tankers) have been the focus of numerous studies for underwater noise source level determination and modeling. This work extends pre-existing studies to the ferry ship class. Hydrophone-based measurements of the N.M. Trans-Saint-Laurent ferry near the Riviere-du-Loup harbor (Riviere-du-Loup, QC CANADA) were obtained for 186 transits between 2020 July 22th and 2020 September 5th. For each transit, monopole source levels are estimated for two (2) different modes of operation i.e., the low-speed phases of acceleration/deceleration when the ferry launches/docks at Riviere-du-Loup and the passages at quasi-operational speed at the hydrophone's closest-point-of-approach. Relative differences between the two (2) modes of operation are presented here in the low-frequency domain between 141 and 707 Hz. An average excess of 8 to 11.5 dB indicates that the ferry is likely one order of magnitude noisier, within this frequency band, during acceleration/deceleration when compared to passages at operational speed. This highlights that, in terms of marine mammal conservation, a significant reduction of the noise pollution could be achieved, for instance, by avoiding sudden speed changes in the vicinity of whales.

Automated summary

Exposure to anthropogenic noise from the commercial fleet is a significant factor affecting the aquatic environment. This study focuses on ferry ships and finds that the noise level is higher during low-speed acceleration/deceleration compared to operational speed. It suggests that taking measures such as avoiding sudden speed changes near whales could greatly reduce noise pollution.