Marine Wildlife Behavior Database

General:

The heightened awareness of the environmental impact of noise on marine wildlife has dramatically affected the ability of governmental, institutional, and commercial groups to conduct research and routine operations with any device that makes sound underwater. Noise-producing operations must comply with various environmental regulations that provide varying levels of protection to the environment and wildlife. Although a number of assessment tools have been developed in recent years, they all require a forecast of the species present at the time of the operation, their abundance and distribution, as well as their diving, general movement, and acoustic behavior. A national database of the seasonal distribution, abundance, and behavior of marine wildlife is needed to consistently assess the impact of noise activities and to identify areas requiring further research. During the first phase of this project, a prototype Marine Wildlife Behavior Database is being developed for a select number of species in the Gulf of Maine to demonstrate the usefulness and applicability of such a resource. The second phase of this project will expand the geographic extent of the prototype database to include species known to occur in the North Atlantic Ocean. The content of the database will also be expanded to include fields describing the acoustic signals produced by each species. This will provide, for example, people proposing noise-producing activities with the ability to determine which species are most likely to be affected by their activities. In addition, the database will provide links to physical oceanographic databases that supply environmental data required for acoustic propagation models. These data are necessary to predict the acoustic environment to which animals would be exposed. Future work would build on this structure to create a worldwide database.

Specific Tasks:

The University of Rhode Island (URI) Coastal Institute will coordinate a scientific advisory council consisting of expert scientists from the URI and other academic and research institutions in the fields of marine acoustics, marine mammals, marine reptiles, fisheries, physical and biological oceanography, sea and land remote sensing, coastal ecosystems, GIS, and meta-databasing and dissemination systems. 

The URI Environmental Data Center (EDC) will design and implement the data distribution system. The MWBD for the North Atlantic region will be made available over the Internet as a registered node on the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI). 

MAI will obtain, collate, condition and geo-reference baseline data on marine wildlife behaviors, namely diving, movement, and acoustic characteristics that are described in scientific publications.  Since acoustic received levels can vary greatly with depth at a given location, the three-dimensional behavior of animals must be characterized in order to accurately calculate acoustic exposures.  In addition, behavior data have not been reported in a consistent format.  By examining the original literature and contacting researchers regarding their results when necessary, a more consistent database of behavioral parameters will be created.