PLoS One. 2014; 9(3): e89820.
Published online 2014 Mar 5. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0089820
PMCID: PMC3943851
Z. Daniel Deng, Editor
This article has been corrected. See PLoS One. 2014 November 26; 9(11): e114362.
This article has been cited by other articles in PMC.
Abstract
The
inshore, continental shelf waters of British Columbia (BC), Canada are
busy with ship traffic. South coast waters are heavily trafficked by
ships using the ports of Vancouver and Seattle. North coast waters are
less busy, but expected to get busier based on proposals for container
port and liquefied natural gas development and expansion. Abundance
estimates and density surface maps are available for 10 commonly seen
marine mammals, including northern resident killer whales, fin whales,
humpback whales, and other species with at-risk status under Canadian
legislation. Ship noise is the dominant anthropogenic contributor to the
marine soundscape of BC, and it is chronic. Underwater noise is now
being considered in habitat quality assessments in some countries and in
marine spatial planning. We modeled the propagation of underwater noise
from ships and weighted the received levels by species-specific
audiograms. We overlaid the audiogram-weighted maps of ship audibility
with animal density maps. The result is a series of so-called “hotspot”
maps of ship noise for all 10 marine mammal species, based on cumulative
ship noise energy and average distribution in the boreal summer. South
coast waters (Juan de Fuca and Haro Straits) are hotspots for all
species that use the area, irrespective of their hearing sensitivity,
simply due to ubiquitous ship traffic. Secondary hotspots were found on
the central and north coasts (Johnstone Strait and the region around
Prince Rupert). These maps can identify where anthropogenic noise is
predicted to have above-average impact on species-specific habitat, and
where mitigation measures may be most effective. This approach can guide
effective mitigation without requiring fleet-wide modification in sites
where no animals are present or where the area is used by species that
are relatively insensitive to ship noise.
PLoS One. 2014; 9(11): e114362.
Published online 2014 Nov 26. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0114362
PMCID: PMC4245257
Correction: Identifying Modeled Ship Noise Hotspots for Marine Mammals of Canada's Pacific Region
This corrects the article "Identifying Modeled Ship Noise Hotspots for Marine Mammals of Canada's Pacific Region" in volume 9, e89820.
The
following information is missing from the Acknowledgments section: We
thank Patrick O’Hara and his colleagues in the Oil-in-Canadian-Waters
research group (Rosaline Canessa, Ron Pelot and Norma Serra) for
extensive analysis of vessel count, speed and location data to
facilitate our acoustic analyses.
There are several
errors in the References section. References 3, 4, 28, 29, 30, 36, 37,
38, 39, and 55 are incorrect. The correct references are as follows:
3.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada (2011) Recovery Strategy for the Northern
and Southern Resident Killer Whales (Orcinus orca) in Canada. Species at
Risk Act Recovery Strategy Series. Ottawa: Fisheries and Oceans Canada.
4.
National Marine Fisheries Service (2008) Recovery Plan for Southern
Resident Killer Whales (Orcinus orca). Seattle, WA, USA: National Marine
Fisheries Service, Northwest Region. 251 p.
28. Donovan
CR, Harris C, Harwood J, Milazzo L. A Simulation-Based Method for
Quantifying and Mitigating the Effects of Anthropogenic Sound on Marine
Mammals; 2012; Edinburgh, Scotland. Proceedings of Meetings on
Acoustics.
29. Federal Court (2010) Northern and
Southern Resident Killer Whales (Orcinus orca) in Canada: Critical
Habitat Protection Statement. In: Ecojustice, editor. 2010 FC 1233
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Federal Court of Appeal. pp. 127.
30.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada (2010) Recovery Strategy for the North
Pacific Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) in Canada [DRAFT]. In:
Canada FaO, editor. Ottawa: Government of Canada. pp. x + 51 pp.
36.
Williams R, Thomas L (2007) Distribution and abundance of marine
mammals in the coastal waters of British Columbia, Canada. Journal of
Cetacean Research and Management 9: 15-28.
37. Williams
R, Ashe E, O'Hara PD (2011) Marine mammals and debris in coastal waters
of British Columbia, Canada. Marine Pollution Bulletin 62: 1303-1316.
38.
Williams R, O'Hara P (2010) Modelling ship strike risk to fin, humpback
and killer whales in British Columbia, Canada. Journal of Cetacean
Research and Management 11: 1-8.
39. Williams R, Grand
J, Hooker SK, Buckland ST, Reeves RR, et al. (2014) Prioritizing global
marine mammal habitats using density maps in place of range maps.
Ecography 37: 212–220.
55. Breeding
JE, Pflug LA, Bradley M, Walrod MH, McBride W (1996) Research Ambient
Noise Directionality (RANDI) 3.1 Physics Description. Planning System
Incorporated.
Reference
1. Erbe C, Williams R, Sandilands D, Ashe E (2014) Identifying Modeled Ship Noise Hotspots for Marine Mammals of Canada's Pacific Region. PLoS ONE 9(3): e89820.doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0089820 [PMC free article] [PubMed]
Articles from PLoS ONE are provided here courtesy of Public Library of Science
