Applying technical guidance from the USA for management of impacts of anthropogenic noise on wildlife in other countries: the Canadian context

Technical Guidance from the US National Marine Fisheries Service recommends Federal agencies use estimated thresholds for peak sound pressure levels and weighted cumulative sound exposure levels for the onset of permanent (and temporary) hearing threshold shifts in marine mammals. These dual metrics...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inCanadian journal of zoology Vol. 101; no. 4; pp. 222 - 241
Main Authors Wright, Andrew J, Moors-Murphy, Hilary B, Yurk, Harald
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Ottawa NRC Research Press 01.04.2023
Canadian Science Publishing NRC Research Press
Subjects
Anthropogenic factors
Environmental aspects
Fisheries
Health aspects
Hearing
Human beings
Human influences
Influence on nature
Jurisdiction
Marine fish
Marine mammals
Methods
Noise pollution
Sound pressure
Wildlife
Wildlife management
Canada
United States
United States > US
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Summary:Technical Guidance from the US National Marine Fisheries Service recommends Federal agencies use estimated thresholds for peak sound pressure levels and weighted cumulative sound exposure levels for the onset of permanent (and temporary) hearing threshold shifts in marine mammals. These dual metrics were developed to inform impact assessments within the US legal landscape. Despite its merits, the Technical Guidance contains uncertainties due to limited data on marine mammal hearing and auditory response to noise. The underlying assumptions about how representative existing data are for all marine mammal species also create limitations in the applicability of the Technical Guidance. These limitations warrant consideration before the Technical Guidance can be applied effectively in other jurisdictions with different legal standards. Using the Canadian legal framework as a working example, we found that many Canadian species are underrepresented in the dataset informing the Technical Guidance. The Technical Guidance also does not address all relevant noise impact types. Thus, the Technical Guidance alone cannot address all Canadian legal standards and, if the Technical Guidance is incorporated, some adjustments to the criteria within may be needed to meet the precautionary requirements of many Canadian legal standards.
ISSN:0008-4301
1480-3283
1480-3283
0008-4301
DOI:10.1139/cjz-2022-0085