Modelling ship movements: Applications for noise exposure to the marine ecosystem

Ship-source marine noise is an emerging issue that is increasingly shown to interfere with marine mammals, fish, potentially marine birds and other animals. The exposure to ship-based noise is expected to increase in the Salish Sea as marine vessel activity increases due to planned port expansions and new marine terminal construction on Canada’s Pacific coast. Increasingly, government and industry are required to take operational and strategic mitigation measures without reliable and comprehensive data and analysis to inform those decisions, and in the absence of national guidelines. The goal of this research has been to explore and improve the utility and modelling of ship traffic, based on AIS and other data, as an indicator of noise to enable government, industry and, even individuals, make better decisions to mitigate marine noise impacts. Specifically, the research addresses the following three questions: 1) How can we build a reliable, comprehensive spatio-temporal model of vessel movement? 2) How can we confidently associate noise with marine vessels to understand cumulative noise exposure? 3) How can we integrate vessel traffic models and noise exposure models with decision making and outreach? To accomplish this goal a multidisciplinary team of researchers has been assembled to tackle these research questions for each of the projects three study areas: Sach’s Harbour in the Arctic, SGaan Kinghlas Bowie Seamount on the west coast of Haida Gwaii and the Salish Sea. Here we show the results of vessel traffic modelling for the Salish Sea, the most heavily trafficked of all three areas, and still facing further increases in shipping levels due primarily to advances on the previously planned port expansion in Vancouver