Product catalogue
Marine Seismic Surveys and the Environment: An updated critical review of the potential impacts of marine seismic surveys on fish and invertebrates
Marine seismic surveys are a fundamental tool for geological mapping, including the exploration for offshore oil and gas resources, but the sound generated during these surveys is an acute source of noise in the marine environment. Growing concern and increasing scientific evidence about the potential impacts of underwater noise associated with marine seismic surveys presents an interdisciplinary challenge to multiple sectors including government, industries, scientists and environmental managers. To inform this issue, Geoscience Australia, in collaboration with Curtin University and CSIRO, published a literature review (Carroll et al. 2017) that summarised 70 peer-reviewed scientific studies that investigated the impacts of impulsive low-frequency sound on marine fish and invertebrates. Here we provide an updated, critical synthesis of recently published data to ensure that the Australian governments’ understanding of the potential impacts of seismic surveys on fisheries and the broader marine environment remains current.
A significant body of scientific research into the effects of marine seismic sounds on the marine environment has been undertaken over the past four years and scientific knowledge in this area is continuing to improve. This is partly due to increased sophistication of experimental designs that integrate the controlled aspects of laboratory studies, with field-based (before-after-control-impact) studies. However, there remain several research issues and challenges associated with progressing our understanding of the full impact of marine seismic surveys on fisheries and the marine environment. These include the need to broaden the research to cover a wider range of marine species, and to expand our understanding to impacts at the population and ecosystem scale, rather than the individual organism. There is also a continued need for improved standardisation in terminology and measurement of sound exposure.
To address the research gaps and issues, Geoscience Australia recommends measures including: 1) undertaking additional multidisciplinary co-designed scientific research to examine short and long term impacts on important life stages of key species (including protected and commercially important species); 2) gathering robust environmental baselines and time-series data to account for spatiotemporal variability in the marine environment and to help inform management and monitoring; 3) continuing to develop and refine standards for quantifying sound exposure; 4) modelling population and ecosystem consequences, and; 5) further studying the interaction of seismic signals with other stressors to better assess cumulative impacts. If applied these recommendations may advance the scientific evidence-base to better inform stakeholder engagement, environmental impact assessment and management of the potential impacts of seismic surveys on fisheries and the marine environment.
Simple
Identification info
- Date (Creation)
- 2020-12-14
- Date (Publication)
- 2020-12-16T03:09:20
- Citation identifier
- Geoscience Australia Persistent Identifier/https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/144554
- Citation identifier
- Digital Object Identifier/http://dx.doi.org/10.11636/Record.2020.040
- Cited responsible party
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Author Carroll, A.
PSCD Internal Contact Author Przeslawski, R.
Office of the Chief Scts Internal Contact
- Name
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Record
- Issue identification
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2020/040
- Status
- Accepted
- Point of contact
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Point of contact Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice Point of contact Carroll, A.
PSCD Internal Contact
- Spatial representation type
- Topic category
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- Environment
- Geoscientific information
- Oceans
- Biota
Extent
Extent
))
- Maintenance and update frequency
- As needed
Resource format
- Title
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Product data repository: Various Formats
- Website
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Data Store directory containing the digital product files
Data Store directory containing one or more files, possibly in a variety of formats, accessible to Geoscience Australia staff only for internal purposes
- theme.ANZRC Fields of Research.rdf
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EARTH SCIENCES
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GEOPHYSICS
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LITERARY STUDIES
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ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND MANAGEMENT
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- Keywords
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fish
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- Keywords
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invertebrates
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- Keywords
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Published_External
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Resource constraints
- Title
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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence
- Alternate title
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CC-BY
- Edition
-
4.0
- Access constraints
- License
- Use constraints
- License
Resource constraints
- Title
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Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem
- Edition date
- 2018-11-01T00:00:00
- Classification
- Unclassified
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
Distribution Information
- Distributor contact
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Distributor Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice
- OnLine resource
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Download the Record (pdf) [1.7 MB]
Download the Record (pdf) [1.7 MB]
- Distribution format
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pdf
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Metadata constraints
- Title
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Australian Government Security Classification System
- Edition date
- 2018-11-01T00:00:00
- Classification
- Unclassified
Metadata
- Metadata identifier
-
urn:uuid/bca0e23f-922c-46c5-8127-9cdff52323e6
- Title
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GeoNetwork UUID
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
- Contact
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Point of contact Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice Point of contact Carroll, A.
PSCD Internal Contact
Type of resource
- Resource scope
- Document
- Name
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GA publication: Record
Alternative metadata reference
- Title
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Geoscience Australia - short identifier for metadata record with
uuid
- Citation identifier
- eCatId/144554
- Date info (Creation)
- 2019-04-08T01:55:29
- Date info (Revision)
- 2019-04-08T01:55:29
Metadata standard
- Title
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AU/NZS ISO 19115-1:2014
Metadata standard
- Title
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ISO 19115-1:2014
Metadata standard
- Title
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ISO 19115-3
- Title
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Geoscience Australia Community Metadata Profile of ISO 19115-1:2014
- Edition
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Version 2.0, September 2018
- Citation identifier
- https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/122551