OCS Study BOEM 2014-608 Characterization and Potential Impacts of Noise Producing Construction and Operation Activities on the Outer Continental Shelf: Data Synthesis U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Gulf of Mexico OCS Region OCS Study BOEM 2014-608 Characterization and Potential Impacts of Noise Producing Construction and Operation Activities on the Outer Continental Shelf: Data Synthesis Authors Bruce Martin David Zeddies Jeff MacDonnell Jonathan Vallarta Julien Delarue Prepared under BOEM Contract M10PC000C55 by JASCO Applied Sciences 202 - 32 Troop Ave. Dartmouth, NS, B3B 1Z1 Canada Published by U.S. Department of the Interior New Orleans, LA Bureau of Ocean Energy Management June 2014 Gulf of Mexico OCS Region DISCLAIMER This report was prepared under contract between the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and JASCO Applied Sciences. This report has been technically reviewed by BOEM, and it has been approved for publication. Approval does not necessarily signify that the contents reflect the views and policies of BOEM, nor does mention of trade names or commercial products constitute endorsement or recommendation for use. REPORT AVAILABILITY To download a PDF file of this Gulf of Mexico OCS Region report, go to the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Environmental Studies Program Information System website and search on OCS Study BOEM 2014-608. This report can be viewed at select Federal Depository Libraries. It can also be obtained from the National Technical Information Service; the contact information is below. U.S. Department of Commerce National Technical Information Service 5301 Shawnee Rd. Springfield, Virginia 22312 Phone: (703) 605-6000, 1(800) 553-6847 Fax: (703) 605-6900 Website: http://www.ntis.gov/ CITATION Martin, B, .D. Zeddies, J. MacDonnell, J. Vallarta, and J. Delarue. 2014. Characterization and potential impacts of noise producing construction and operation activities on the Outer Continental Shelf: data synthesis. U.S. Dept. of the Interior, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Gulf of Mexico OCS Region, New Orleans, LA. OCS Study BOEM 2014- 608. 84 p. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS JASCO thanks Rob Reynolds (Zephyr Marine) and Rob Morris (Edgetech) for assistance locating the AMARs at Nantucket Sound after Deployment 1. Thanks also to Joe Pritchard, Captain of Big Game, and Jim Tigit, Captain of Minute Man, for assistance with deployments, retrievals, and shipping. The deployments and retrievals were performed by Eric Lumsden, Jeff MacDonnell, Christopher Whitt, David Zeddies, Scott Trivers, and Nicole Chorney. The manual analysis was performed by Eric Lumsden, Craig Evans, Frederic Paquet, and Julien Delarue. v CONTENTS List of Figures .............................................................................................................................................. ix List of Tables ............................................................................................................................................. xiii 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 1 1. Background ................................................................................................................................. 1 2. Summary of Results .................................................................................................................... 3 2. Methods .................................................................................................................................................. 5 1. Acoustic Data Collection ............................................................................................................ 5 2. Non-Acoustic Data Collection .................................................................................................... 7 3. Acoustic Data Analysis ............................................................................................................... 7 2.3.1. Ambient Sound Levels ................................................................................................. 7 2.3.2. Automated Shipping Detector .................................................................................... 10 2.3.3. Marine Life Call Detection ......................................................................................... 11 3. Results ................................................................................................................................................... 15 1. Offshore Delaware Bay ............................................................................................................. 15 3.1.1. Deployment 1, June–October 2010 ............................................................................ 15 3.1.2. Deployment 2, October 2010 to January 2011 ........................................................... 25 3.1.3. Deployment 3, January–April 2011 ........................................................................... 25 3.1.4. Deployment 4, May–August 2011 ............................................................................. 34 2. Nantucket Sound ....................................................................................................................... 39 3.2.1. Deployment 1, June–October 2010 ............................................................................ 39 3.2.2. Deployment 2, October 2010 to January 2011 ........................................................... 39 3.2.3. Deployment 3, January–April 2011 ........................................................................... 43 3.2.4. Deployment 4, April–August 2011 ............................................................................ 46 4. Discussion ............................................................................................................................................. 51 1. Biological Activity .................................................................................................................... 51 2. Ambient and Anthropogenic Sound Levels .............................................................................. 53 4.2.1. Variations over Time .................................................................................................. 53 4.2.2. Variations between Sites ............................................................................................ 55 5. Conclusions and Recommendations ..................................................................................................... 57 6. Literature Cited ..................................................................................................................................... 59 Appendix A STFT Analysis .................................................................................................................. 61 Appendix B Hydrophone Calibrations .................................................................................................. 65 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1-1. Installed onshore wind power capacity ........................................................................ 1 Figure 1-2. United States offshore wind resource .......................................................................... 2 Figure 2-1. Recorder deployment ................................................................................................... 5 Figure 2-2. Autonomous Multi-channel Acoustic Recorder ........................................................... 6 Figure 2-3. Mooring design for Autonomous Multi-channel Acoustic Recorder (AMAR) deployment with ground line for grapple retrieval. .................................................... 7 Figure 2-4. The Wenz curves describing pressure spectral density levels of marine ambient noise ............................................................................................................................ 9 Figure 2-5. Spectrogram showing tonals from heavy shipping activity ....................................... 10 Figure 2-6. The contour-follower mask. ....................................................................................... 13 Figure 2-7. Event detection process .............................................................................................. 14 Figure 3-1. Weather data during Deployment 1 in offshore Delaware Bay. ................................ 15 Figure 3-2. Track of Hurricane Earl ............................................................................................. 16 Figure 3-3. Track of Hurricane Igor ............................................................................................. 16 Figure 3-4. Spectral data for Deployment 1 in offshore Delaware Bay. ...................................... 17 Figure 3-5. Percentiles of power spectral density levels of the ambient noise during Deployment 1 in offshore Delaware Bay ................................................................. 18 Figure 3-6. Spectrogram of noise from a ship passing near the offshore Delaware Bay recorder ..................................................................................................................... 19 Figure 3-7. Shipping detections per 30 min file during Deployment 1 in offshore Delaware Bay. ........................................................................................................................... 19 Figure 3-8. Half-hourly occurrence of unknown delphinid calls .................................................