This unique network of hydrophones is a collaborative effort between OAR’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL), all NMFS Science Centers, the NOS National Marine Sanctuary System, and the National Park Service to establish and collect consistent and comparable long-term acoustic data sets covering all major regions of the U.S.

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For a Google Earth view of the stations, open the kmz file here.

Listening to the Sea - NOAA story map of the Ocean Noise Reference Network

NOAA Investigates Ocean Noise During COVID-19

NOAA has launched a wide-ranging research effort to investigate the impact of reduced vehicle traffic, air travel, shipping, manufacturing and other activities on Earth’s atmosphere and oceans.The story mentions a variety of research going on, including PMEL’s ocean acoustic research. PMEL along with NOAA Fisheries Office of Science and Technology, NOAA Sanctuaries and Department of Interior’s National Park Service are collaborating to analyze data from hydrophones deployed around the United States coastal waters to measure changes and assess any impacts on fisheries and marine mammal activity due to reduced maritime transportation and other maritime activities.  

Background

Passive acoustic monitoring of the ocean ambient sound field is a critical aspect of NOAA’s mandate for ocean and coastal stewardship. This includes detecting and characterizing: (1) sounds produced and used by living marine resources (e.g., endangered marine mammals); (2) natural sources of noise from physical oceanographic processes; and (3) anthropogenic noise sources that contribute to the overall ocean noise environment. Noise generated by anthropogenic activities (especially commercial shipping and seismic oil & gas exploration) is increasingly being recognized as a potential threat to marine mammals which are protected in the U.S. by the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act. Current scientific data suggest that increased ambient noise levels impact marine mammals by hindering communication (Hatch et al. 2012), altering communication behavior (Parks et al. 2013), altering locomotive behavior (Pirotta et al. 2013), and inducing stress (Rolland et al. 2012).

Additional concerns associated with the degraded acoustic quality of diverse habitats broaden these concerns to include possible repercussions for fish and invertebrate species, many of which NOAA manages as commercially-harvested, protects as resources within sanctuaries, or studies as key elements to sustaining healthy ecosystems. For these reasons it is important for science-based regulatory agencies including NOAA to monitor long-term trends and changes in the ambient sound field.

Research Objective

The objective of the project is to establish a network of ocean noise reference stations in U.S. waters to monitor long-term changes and trends in the underwater ambient sound field (McDonald et al. 2006). The identical autonomous acoustic recording systems were developed and built in-house at PMEL to ensure proper calibration and consistency of the collected data sets. The hydrophone moorings are currently deployed in the following areas:

Deployments

Download data from NOAA NCEI Passive Acoustic Archive

Station	Location	Partners	Latitude	Longitude	Water depth [m]	AUH depth [m]	Initial Deployment
NRS01	Alaskan Arctic	NOAA/AFSC	72.44	-156.55	1,000	500	October 2014
NRS02	Gulf of Alaska	NOAA/PMEL	50.25	-145.13	4,250	500	January 2015
NRS03	Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary	NOAA/OCNMS	47.77	-125.52	936	488	September 2014
NRS04	Hawaiian Islands	NOAA/PIFSC	22.33	-157.67	~4,900	900	July 2015
NRS05	Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary	NOAA/CINMS	33.9	-119.58	1,000	900	October 2014
NRS06	Gulf of Mexico	NOAA/SEFSC	28.25	-86.83	1,230	900	July 2014
NRS07	Southeastern continental U.S. (SE US)	NOAA/SEFSC	29.33	-77.99	870	900	April 2015
NRS08	Northeastern continental U.S. (NE US)	NOAA/NEFSC	39.01	-67.27	~3,550	900	June 2014
NRS09	Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary	NOAA/SBNMS	42.4	-70.13	79	79	October 2014
NRS10	Tutuila Island, National Park of American Samoa	NPS/NPAS	-14.27	-170.72	33	33	June 2015
NRS11	Cordell Bank Coast National Marine Sanctuary	NOAA/CBNMS	37.88	-123.44	550	500	October 2015
NRS12	Buck Island Reef National Monument, U.S. Virgin Islands (US VI)	NPS/BUIS	17.79	-64.65	40	40	November 2016

It is of critical importance to continue these baseline measurements so we can establish as long a time series as possible to gauge the changes induced by anthropogenic and climate stressors on the marine ambient sound environment (for a summary see Hildebrand 2009). We will investigate the spatio-temporal variability in low-frequency deep ocean ambient sound levels (10 - 2,200 Hz) at these 12 ocean regions within the U.S. EEZ. Our ongoing goal is to maintain (and possibly expand) the array and build a multi-year record of ambient sound levels in these regions. We will then be able to identify and delineate seasonal and long-term man-made and climate-induced noise sources.

Selected Publications

Haver, S., Gedamke, J., Hatch, L.T., Dziak, R.P., Van Parijs, S., McKenna, M., Barlow, J., Berchok, C., DiDonato, E., Hanson, B., Haxel, J., Holt, M., Lipski, D., Matsumoto, H., Meinig, C., Mellinger, D.K., Moore, S., Oleson, E., Soldevilla, M., Klinck, H. (2018). Monitoring Long-Term Ambient Noise Trends in U.S. Waters: The NOAA/NPS Ocean Noise Reference Station Network. Marine Policy, 90C, 6-13. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308597X17306309

Haver, S., Fournet, M.E.H., Dziak, R.P., Gabriele, C., Gedamke, J., Hatch, L.T., Haxel, J., Heppell, S.A.,McKenna, M., Mellinger, D.K., Van Parijs, S.M. (2019). Comparing the Underwater Soundscapes of Four U.S. National Parks and Marine Sanctuaries. Frontiers in Marine Science, 6, 500, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2019.00500

Haver, S.M., Rand, Z., Hatch, L.T., Lipski, D., Dziak, R.P., Gedamke, J., Haxel, J., Heppell, S., Jahncke, J., McKenna, M., Mellinger, D.K., Oestreich, W., Roche, L., Ryan, J., Van Parijs, S.M. (2020). Seasonal trends and primary contributors to the low frequency soundscape of the Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 148 (2), 1-14.

Haver, S.M., Adams, J.D., Hatch, L.T., Van Parijs, S.M., Dziak, R.P., Haxel, J., Heppell, S., McKenna, M., Mellinger, D.K., Gedamke, J. (2021). Large vessel activity and low-frequency underwater sound benchmarks in United States waters. Frontiers in Marine Science, 8, 669528, 1-13.

Wall, C.C., Haver, S.M., Hatch, L.T., Miksis-Olds, J., Bochenek, R., Dziak, R.P., Gedamke, J. (2021). The next wave of passive acoustic data management: How centralized access can enhance science. Frontiers in Marine Science, 8, 703682, 1-15.

Munger, J.E., Herrera, D.P., Haver, S.M., Waterhouse, L., Gedamke, J., Dziak, R.P., McKenna, M.F., Heppell, S.A., Haxel, J. (2022). Environmental cues for pomacentrid sound production in American Samoa using convolutional neural networks. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 681, 197-210.

Investigators

Robert P. Dziak, Samara Haver, Haru Matsumoto, Lauren Roche, Jay Turnbull, David K. Mellinger
NOAA/PMEL Acoustics/CIMRS
2115 SE OSU Drive
Newport, OR 97365
Robert.P.Dziak@noaa.gov

Haru.Matsumoto@noaa.gov
Lauren.Roche@noaa.gov
James.Turnbull@noaa.gov
David.K.Mellinger@noaa.gov
Samara.Haver@noaa.gov

References

Hatch, L.T., Clark, C.W., Van Parijs, S.M., Frankel, A.S., and Ponirakis D.W. (2012): Quantifying loss of acoustic communication space for right whales in and around a U.S. National Marine Sanctuary. Conservation Biology, 26:983-994.

Hildebrand, J.A. (2009): Anthropogenic and natural sources of ambient noise in the ocean. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 395:5-20.

McDonald, M.A., Hildebrand, J.A., and Wiggins, S. M. (2006): Increase in deep ocean ambient noise in the Northeast Pacific west of San Nicolas Island, California. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 1520:711-718.

Porter, M., and Henderson, L. (2013): Global ocean soundscapes. Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics, 19:010050 (6 pages).

Parks, S.E., Johnson, M.P., Nowacek, D.P., and Tyack, P.L. (2012): Changes in Vocal Behavior of North Atlantic Right Whales in Increased Noise. In: The Effects of Noise on Aquatic Life, Popper, A.N., Hawkins, A. eds., Springer, pp. 317-320.

Pirotta, E., Milor, R., Moretti, D., Di Marzio, N., Tyack, P.L., and Hastie, G. (2013): Vessel Noise Affects Beaked Whale Behavior: Results of a Dedicated Acoustic Response Study. PLoS ONE, 7(8):e42535.

Rolland, R.M., Parks, S.E., Hunt, K.E., Castellote, M., Corkeron, P.J., Nowacek, D.P., Wasser, S.K., and Kraus, S.D. (2012): Evidence that ship noise increases stress in right whales. Proceedings of the Royal Society B., 279:2363-2368.